mea miaias Hit} rr ait is RCT PC RR SY i RATA fs er Er 100 S 200 300 400 Cod | oF : | GULF oF U1INEAGcn, ol 1. §* Thomas Barava | > | C. Lopez WY SAE =] 0 | Annobon I. Gouml) : | | | | | Fg | - ge 1 mirage : Lo nsions S 0 U T H anzibar L&T? : > ‘ Monti 1. © | wo SfPaul d biton dats ¢. Delgado Pe | 1 A T 1. A Comoro [3% T 1 C Johanna~s" yjayotta Amber Br ~ Sie : Kisanga > Nogsiz, St Helena z | / Antongil B. A 0 C E aN x f, StMarie .. | 20 ft— ) Mauri : Q Bourbon! Gs Tropic of Capricorn | ~~ \ Unwolost R. 30 Eo itzbur, / | — 30 ~ / The dark shade indicates those parts where Slavery C CAPR TOW y %, / ; “Ape of Good MOV 45! ° / and the Slave-trade more or less prevail. Ag 3 / The uncoloured parts where freedom exists. = . ; 40 \ \ REE 3 \ / / Ea yay ok Emmy =x EES osu T— Es 4 om ma a. r= [ 30 20 Longitude 10 West, 0 Longitude 10 East 20 30 40 50 60 THE LOST CONTINENT. OR, Slavery and the Slave-trade IN AFRICA, 1378. With observations on the Asiatic Slave-trade, carried on under the name of the labour traffic, and some other subjects. re Ree, Seth JOSEPH COOPER. —_———————— LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN & Co. 1875. aE Ce LONDON BARRETT, SONS AND CO,, PRINTERS, SEETHING LANE, E.C. CONTENTS. CHAPTER 1 The State of Africa— Inefficiency of the present attempts to destroy the Slave-trade—The only Remedy—Slavery in Turkey, Egypt, Persia—Wars of Aggression—Sir Samuel Baker-— Colonel Gordon, &c = - - - CHAPTER II. Slave-trade in Affghanistan—The Ameer subsidised by England —Supplied with Arms used in carrying on the Slave-trade —Slavery on the Gold Coast—SI lavery and the Slave-trade in Madagascar ~~ - - a CHAPTER IIL Slavery and the Slave-trade in the Portuguese Settlements on the East Cost of Africa and the African Island of St. Thomas - CHAPTER IV. Slavery in Brazil—Rapid Decrease in the number of Slaves— Extraordinary Death-Rate—Insufficiency of the Abolition Law of 1871—Urgent Necessity of Freedom - - J043239 PAGE 19 25 31 1v CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. The Asiatic Slave-trade—The French Colonies—DBritish West Indies and Mauritius—Chinese in Peru - - - CHAPTER VI. The Fiji Islands—The Contract System - - CHAPTER VIL Slavery in Cuba—The Slave-Trade T reaties—Destruction of hend’s Visit—Fashionable Prejudice—Conduct of the Blacks: Life—Working of Slavery on the Estates—Captain Towns- testimony of Governors of Jamaica—Leeward Islands - CHAPTER VIII Civil War in Cuba—The Spanish Government of the Island— The two great parties—The Revolution in Spain, 1868 — Special Laws—Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico—Course of the late British Cabinet = = - u CHAPTER IX. The Zanzibar Treaty—Legal difficulties as to its provisions— New Routes by Land for the Slave-trade—Condition of the African People where not demoralised by the Slave-trader - CHAPTER X. Dr. Livingstone’s last Journals—Christian regard for Human Life —Slave-trade as seen in his latter years ~~ - - - PAGE 18 §I 60 70 79 85 CONTENTS. Vv CHAPTER XI. PAGE Christian Missions—Dr. Livingstone—Colonel Cameron—New and extensive steam communication with Zanzibar, ports in Eastern Africa—Projected Ship Canal, North Western Africa - “ : i = = - 8 CHAPTER XIL Introduction of British Indian Coolies into Surinam—The Dutch in Java—Dutch war of aggression in Acheen - =o CHAPTER XII. Queensland—The Labour Traffic—Condition of the Islanders on the Estates - - = - = - 102 CHAPTER XIV. Coolies poponl into the British West Indies during a period of 7 Twenty-nine years—The number returned to their own country—Their savings—Number now in the Colonies— The death-rate - = = = - - 110 CHAPTER XV. Concluding Remarks - - - - - - 114 PREFACE. SINCE the publication of ¢ Slavery and the Slave-trade ) in Africa in 1872,” many circumstances have occurred to excite public interest in the question. The discovery of Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji, his subsequent travels and lamented death, together with the mission of Sir Bartle Frere and the works of other travellers, have all combined to arouse an intense amount of popular feeling. Will this public interest be brought to bear in the right direction ? If so, under the Divine blessing, Slavery and the Slave- trade in Africa may speedily be abolished. To show that there is no insurmountable obstacle to this at the present time, the following pages have been wiltion, From what is passing in the great Valley of the Nile, it is clear that one of two things will shortly take place. viii PREFACE. Either Slavery will be abolished, in the Mohammedan countries, and with it the Slave-trade in Africa, or the world must witness a new slave-market of enormous extent. It is for the people of England and the other great nations, under the blessing and power of an overruling Providence, to do much at the present time to decide this great question. When the people are really in earnest, the Governments act; without a healthy public opinion behind them, states- men neither act nor have the power to do so. Essex Harr, WaLTHAMSTOW, Fourth Month, 1875. THE 1.0ST CONTINENT, CHAPTER 1, The State of Africa—Inefficiency of the present attempts to destroy the Slave-trade—The only Remedy—Slavery in Turkey, Egypt, Persia —Wars of Aggression—Sir Samuel Baker— Colonel Gordon, &c. WHEN the events of the present age pass into History, probably no greater anomaly will be observed than the state of the vast Continent of Africa during this part of the present century. The slave-trade at the present time extends over - the greater part of the Northern, Southern, and Central regions, and covers an area nearly equal to that of the whole of Europe. That something like a fourth part of the World, capable of producing an abundant supply of almost all those things which are necessary to the comfort and happiness of mankind, should have remained an unproductive wilderness, will be an enigma not easy of solution to the future historian. He will not fail to observe that by the exertions and self- sacrifice of enterprising travellers a flood of light had from B 2 THE LOST CONTINENT. time to time been shed over many of the dark places of Africa, and that well-intended, long-sustained, and noble efforts had in consequence been made to bring about a better state of things. Should he however be able to take a full and compre- hensive view of the whole question, he will doubtless see that these efforts have been misdirected, and that in consequence they have been followed only by partial and almost insigni- ficant results; and further, that by some unaccountable fatuity the true remedy had been almost entirely neglected. In no age have the great questions connected with supply and demand in commercial affairs been so thoroughly dis- cussed as during the second quarter of the present cen- tury, and in none has it been made so apparent that the demand generally creates the supply. By what fatuity is it then, that in attempting to deal with the slave-trade, attention should have been wholly devoted to the question of supply, and no attention should have been given to demand ? It cannot be said that the question is one of humanity merely; fer, as man is converted into property by the slave- trade, the question is one of commerce, and therefore sub- ject to the laws which govern supply and demand. To supply the demand for slaves in the Mohammedan countries has long been the most lucrative trade carried on SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 3 in Africa, and the attempt to destroy this traffic by dealing with the supply alone has heretofore proved not more effective than would have been an attempt to prevent water from finding its level. Hence, notwithstanding all that has been done, the African slave-trade as a whole, is, at this moment, probably as great as it has been at any previous time. Whilst slaves fetch [30 to £30 each in Turkey and Egypt, it must be impossible to stop the trade, unless the absurd idea be entertained that the vast coasts of Africa can be sealed. Nearly all the bloody wars which depopulate and desolate Africa have their origin not in Africa, but in the countries to which the slaves are driven. There are doubtless intertribal wars in Africa, but few even of these may not be traced immediately or remotely to a demand which it is above all things profitable to supply. Wars in Africa having no connection with the slave-trade, are, in fact, comparatively so few that they do not form an important element in the question. The slave-trade has now existed more than three centuries, and within that peried, according to a careful French writer, | more than fifty millions of slaves have been taken from | Africa. The responsibility for the crimes and horrors which these figures represent must rest in the first instance upon the B 2 4 THE LOST CONTINENT. Christian nations of Europe who introduced the system into Africa in the sixteenth century. Under some sense of this responsibility, as it would seem, and with an earnest desire to bring the system to an end, the representatives of the eight principal European Powers, who met in Vienna in 1815 and again in Verona in 1822, declared that the state of Africa was a degradation to Europe, and pledged their respective Governments never to cease their efforts to bring the slave-trade to complete and definite abolition.*® Since that time great changes have taken place—the Atlantic slave-trade has ceased, or very nearly so. But the traffic mostly now carried on by the overland routes east- ward has enormously increased. The principal countries on behalf of which the present African slave-trade is carried on are Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Tunis, Morocco, and Mada- gascar. On them the responsibility for the present state of Africa now mainly rests. The rulers of these countries have, in nearly every instance, at one time or other, condemned both slavery and the slave- trade, and have entered into treaty engagements for the sup- pression of the Slave Markets throughout their dominions. How is it, then, that the slave-trade is still carried on in * See Appendix A. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 5 those countries in violation both of law and treaty engage- ments? One answer to this will probably be found in the fact that the European Powers, though solemnly pledged to bring the system to a definitive end, have taken little interest in the subject for the last thirty years, during which period the traffic has pretty steadily increased. Now that the whole subject is better understood, it becomes every day more manifest that slavery must cease to exist in Turkey and Egypt, the two nations in which is to be found the greatest drain upon Africa. What is required is, that the laws shall no longer recognize human beings as property, and that the buying and selling them shall be made felony. It is this recognition by the law, of property in man, which lies at the root of the whole mischief. Some people who have paid little attention to the subject imagine that the abolition of slavery involves the removal from their employments of all the servile population. This is a great mistake—employers and employed will each stand in need of the other, and in many cases remain in their present connection after the abolition of slavery has taken place. If the slaves are as happy as some people represent, they will of course not leave their employers,— if otherwise, the master will have a new motive for improving their condition in the desire to retain them. Inconveniences will doubtless attend the transition, but 6 THE LOST CONTINENT. these evils will be small compared with those which, sooner or later, overtake all countries in which slavery is allowed to exist. The abolition of slavery must eventually prove as great a boon to the employer as to the employed, because slavery is the principal cause of that lethargy and sensuality which are so injurious to the people, and which form such an obstacle to the reception of Christianity and civilisation. Another difficulty started by some is, that slavery being an internal institution of the countries where it exists, it is there- fore unconstitutional for other Powers to interfere with it. But the slave-trade is now an internal institution of Africa, and still no one doubts the propriety of efforts for its repression on the part of all nations, on the ground, that it is a crime against our common humanity. But slavery also is a crime against humanity, and, being such, all men and all nations are entitled to exert their moral influence against it. Some persons describe slavery as a patriarchal institution, and dwell upon the happiness of the slave in Mussulman countries, overlooking altogether the fact that for every single slave who arrives in Turkey and Egypt four or more have perished. Let those who think thus imagine the slaves as perfectly happy, but then, let them at least remember that, while the system exists, Africa must continue a lost continent. It is, SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 7 however, certain that the negroes waste away in those countries—it is said the second generation of negroes is rarely found in Turkey, and that the third is never seen. Hence the demand for fresh victims creates an ever-flowing stream from Africa. Sir Bartle Frere, in the Blue Book presented to the Houses of Parliament in 1873, states that, “ The correspondence of the Central African Vicariate Apostolic extends over countries roughly estimated at hav- ing a population of 80,000,000 of negroes, between the Red and Arabian Seas on the east, and the Atlantic on the west; and the annual drain consequent on slavery is estimated by the Superior of the Mission at 1,000,000.” Dr. Livingstone calculated that not more than one slave in five arrived at his destination, and on some routes not one in nine. This does not include the loss of life caused by the torture of boys for the markets of Egypt and Turkey, under which two out of every three perish. These Eastern Powers have, in time past, been peculiarly desirous of standing well with England, and it can scarcely be doubted that had her moral influence been with more perseverence brought to bear on the subject, slavery, and consequently the slave-trade—both negro and Circassian— would have ceased long ago. The evil institution cannot be much longer maintained. If Great Britain will not act, in all human probability Russia 8 THE LOST CONTINENT. will do so, and take the honour, as she has recently done in reference to slavery in Khiva. Great credit is due to Russia for her manner of dealing with slavery in Khiva. Had a temporising policy with regard to slavery been pursued, the Khivese would have been subjected to far more trouble and annoyance. Gradual schemes of dealing with slavery would have unsettled everything and have settled nothing. It has too long been the practice of England quietly to dis- regard her treaty claims and to acquiesce in the existence of slavery and the slave-trade in the Eastern Nations. Should no change pretty speedily take place Russia will probably step in and make an end of both. It is sometimes said, even by statesmen, that as civilisation advances and European ideas come to prevail among the Eastern nations, slavery and the slave-trade will cease to exist, as a matter of course. However plausible this idea may be, facts in this particular case are against it. Slavery and civilisation are at this moment increasing side by side in Egypt. Slaves, in a certain sense, are an article of luxury. The advance of civi- lisation and the increase of wealth in Egypt have been followed by an increase in the number of those who can afford to purchase and maintain slaves. Another class of persons are slow to believe that it is necessary to do away with slavery in order to destroy the SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 9 slave-trade ; they still cling to the mistaken idea that the traffic can be abolished by force alone in Africa, and slavery be at the same time retained—an opinion which neither past history nor passing events in any way warrant. On this subject Sir Bartle Frere—who has done so much for humanity, and whose judgment and experience entitle his opinions to the greatest attention—thus expressed himself on a recent occasion in Glasgow :(— “We may do what we can in the way of violent suppression, but we shall never put an end to the slave-trade till we put an end to slavery. We must let slave-holding countries— Egypt, Turkey, and others—understand that they will not be admitted into the brotherhood of civilised nations unless they abjure slavery.” One of the professed objects of the late expedition of Sir Samuel Baker was the forcible suppression of the slave-trade in Africa. Beyond the destruction of a few slave hunters’ stations, which would probably be quickly restored when his back was turned, little has been effected by all that expenditure of blood and treasure. Many of those who accompanied him perished. Large numbers of natives were ruthlessly slaughtered, their villages burnt, and their cattle seized. The murderous and oppressive character of the expedition was exposed in the Times by Mr. M‘William, the chief engineer of the expedition, but Sir Samuel does not appear 10 THE LOST CONTINENT. to have deemed it prudent to attempt any answer to these charges in his recent work. Mr. M’William writes :— “If Sir Samuel Baker wishes at any time for my testi- mony as to the barbarous manner in which the expedition was conducted, the wholesale murders, pillage, and ruin of the country, he is welcome to it; or should the Royal Geo- graphical Society or any body of gentlemen wish for any information respecting that futile expedition, I shall be glad to give it previous to my departure from this country.” * “ . ... Mr. Bakeralso states that Sir Samuel had no in- tention of allowing raids to be made on the natives in future. One of the first acts of Sir Samuel, after the farce of annexing the country had been gone through, was to make a raid on a small tribe near us, taking their cattle, to the number of 5,000, besides some thousands of sheep; he also took possession of all their plantations of grain, leaving the people in a state of starvation. Orders were issued at the same time that all natives found near the camp were to be shot down, irrespec- tive of age orsex. This was strictly carried out. The brutal details of these cold-blooded murders Iwould rather not relate. Out of the numerous raids made upon the unoffending natives near Gondokoro, many of them were led by Sir Samuel in * See Appendix B. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. IY person, and cattle and sheep to the number of over 30,000 captured, and their houses plundered and wantonly burned down. Their cattle were not stolen solely for the use of the troops in camp, but were to be given to the various tribes up the country on condition of their serving Sir Samuel. Naturally the poor creatures resisted as well as they could, but what could they do against fire-arms? Mr. Baker further states that Sir Samuel always wished to preserve peace, but when the Bari war broke out the only chance of success depended on military vigour. The only Bari war that ever existed was a night attack on our cattle inclosures by the Laquois tribe, which was not successful. None of our troops were either killed or wounded in the affair. After this Sir Samuel made war on the Belignan tribes, massacring them in great numbers, and burning up their country. They had taken no part in the raid made by the Laquois on our cattle, but as they were not so powerful, and were much more convenient to be got at, Sir Samuel preferred to operate on them as an example to the Laquois tribe. . . . . ‘ Mr. Baker concludes with saying that if a military ex- pedition is sent to annex an extensive country war is a natural consequence, as the history of the world can testify. True, but scenes such as I Have depicted are not to be met with in modern history.” What will be the result of the new expedition, undertaken I2 THE LOST CONTINENT. by Colonel Gordon, remains to be seen. The whole affair is at present a war of conquest and aggression, in which one side is armed with the most destructive weapons which science and art can produce—the other, with the rudest arms only, in vain attempts to defend their country and their homes. In a single affray, conducted by one of Colonel Gordon’s officers, no less than eighty-two natives were killed. In all these expeditions it should be borne in mind that the cause of the natives is never heard. We only hear the statements of the Europeans who enter into these engage- ments, and they go so equipped and armed that, it has been forcibly remarked, their lives are insured. When any great amount of slaughter has been committed the aggressors con- gratulate one another on their bravery and gallant bearing, and the world applauds. But do these Egyptian raids effect any permanent good ? The first undertaken, in point of time, was that by the Pasha of Egypt, in 1857, when it was declared, as the result, that slavery in Khartoum and the Soudan was abolished. Then followed the expedition of Musa Pacha, in 1862, at the conclusion of which a similar declaration was made, but notwithstanding all this the slave-trade has since raged in those parts and depopulated some of the finest districts in that part of Africa. The slave-trade has never yet been destroyed by such SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 3 means, although occasionally it has been diverted into fresh channels. Knowing this, it is a little remarkable that some persons decry every other course of action. People of this class never grow weary of pouring contempt upon what they are pleased to call, the “fanatical school of humanitarians,” ignoring the fact that if there be a fanatical school of humanitarians, there is also a fanatical school of rapine and blood. Opinions differ greatly as to the sincerity of the professions of the Khedive on the subject of slavery. The impres- sion which the writer received on one occasion, in an interview with His Highness, was, that he was perfectly sincere in his desire to see his country clear of the stain of slavery. But a solution of the question will probably be found in the fact that His Highness—who above all things desires to stand well with the European nations, and who sees the terrible consequence which must some day fall upon Egypt if slavery is allowed to continue—would be glad to make Egypt a free country, but he stands in fear of some of the more opulent of the European mercantile and financial class in Egypt, who make enormous profits out of the present state of things, and are afraid of the effect which any great change might have upon their pecuniary interests. This probably is not unknown in the Foreign Office, and, if so, we must confidently hope that the British Cabinet will 14 THE LOST CONTINENT. assure the Khedive that he will receive in this matter its firm and unhesitating support. If His Highness will decree the entire abolition of slavery, and accompany the act by the manumission of his own slaves he will lay a sure foundation for the stability and happiness of his country, The Sultan of Onan has decreed that all slaves brought into his dominions shall be absolutely free. The Ruler of Vittou and Mongogani, has abolished both slavery and the slave-trade,—these countries are represented as highly pros- perous. There need be no doubt but that Egypt and Turkey can do the same, and will do it whenever they are made aware that Great Britain is really in earnest in the matter. The ambition of the Khedive is to found a great empire in the Valley of -the Nile; to succeed in this he must part with slavery—the means are at all times within his power. Unhappily, however, of late, instead of taking any step in the right direction, when he has acted at all in reference to slavery, he has moved in the direction of strengthening the institution in Egypt. Previous to 1873 a slave fleeing from his master might claim his freedom, and in some cases obtain it. But in the summer of that year His Highness issued an order to the Chief of the Police to the effect that no slave SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. I5 should obtain his liberty unless his master would come for- ward and testify that he was not under a charge of stealing or any other crime. Of course the masters are not slow to use the pretence suggested by the Government. The supposed power, there- fore, of a slave to obtain his liberty on application to the authorities proves too often a delusion. Should the present war of aggression prove successful, of course the newly-annexed dominions will be slave country. Will the European Powers, and will America, stand by and see at the present day a new slave empire created, or rather an annexation of enormous extent, in which slavery, if not the slave-trade also, will have full play? That it will be a Slave Power may be looked upon as an absolute certainty, provided the annexation takes place previous to the abolition of slavery in Egypt. At the present moment England, France and America may, in a certain sense, be said to patronise slavery in the East. Their Consuls in those countries appoint agents in the principal towns and centres who are supporters of slavery and owners of slaves. Over the roofs of their houses wave the flags of Christian nations, and under them are the slaves of these Consular Agents. It is a melancholy fact that the representatives of England 16 THE LOST CONTINENT. and America—the two freest nations in the world—should appear to any extent to be indifferent to the subject, and should, by some of their arrangements, rather support slavery than discourage it. The following remarks are taken from a very important paper written in Egypt, by Sir Bartle Frere, on his route to Zanzibar :(— “It can hardly escape so enlightened a ruler as His Highness that slavery is in itself a canker which must eat into the vitals of a country like Egypt, whose prosperity depends in so large a degree on the industry of the agricul- tural class. . . . . His Highness expressed a hope that the stoppage of the supply of slaves from the interior would ultimately tend towards a gradual diminution and final extinc- tion of slavery in Egypt. I feel that all experience is against this expectation. Whilst the demand continues I believe 1t to be practically impossible to cut off the supply. This is especially the case where the sources of supply are so many and spread over so large an area that ages would hardly suffice to reach them all by separate measures of repression. But if the demand is extinguished the object is at once effected and the trade must cease.” “The Khedive now rules over tens of millions of negroes, of various races, all prolific, docile, and capable of great physical as well as moral and intellectual, improvement. But, what- SLAVERY AND THE SILAVE-TRADE. Ty ever may be the capacity of the higher races, few, if any, approach to the standard of civilisation long since reached by the lowest orders in Egypt proper. What is to be the destiny of these negro races? Every year decreases the obstacles to intercourse between the Upper and Lower Nile. It is quite conceivable and probable that these obstacles may be so far diminished as the enlightened and advanced projects of the Khedive for railways, improved navigation of the Nile, &c., are developed, that the great negro storehouse of labour may become easily available to Lower Egypt. But on what conditions ? If slavery did not exist in Egypt, the conditions would be mutually advantageous to both races. If, however, slavery continues to exist, free negroes will not come there voluntarily, and negro labour can only come as slaves and Helots.” “What a curse and social canker such a state of things must prove cannot escape the observation of His Highness and his advisers, who may see in the various parts of the world the difficulties arising from an Imperial dynasty of foreign sovereigns, a rich and luxurious middle class of natives holding honest free labour in contempt, and a labour- ing class of Helots and slaves. To those who can imagine such a condition of society (and % seems to me imminent in Egypt unless slavery is abolished), it must be evident that such social conditions are not only unnatural, hideous, and C 18 THE LOST CONTINENT. dangerous in themselves, but of a character which no European civilised power would like to see extended. With the Lower Nile free soil, the Khedive, ruling over the upper provinces inhabited by negro races, will be truly at the head of a constantly advancing African civilisation. All reason- able civilised men will be glad to see his influence extending. As matters stand at present they will hesitate to regard his influence as decidedly beneficent even in the darkest corners of Central Africa. They will always be asking, “Is His Highness’s latest acquisition in Central Africa to be a fresh field for the triumphs of civilisation and order, or a {fresh hunting-ground for the slave trader ?” SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. Ig CHAPTER II. Slave-trade in Affghanistan—The Ameer subsidised by England— Supplied with Arms used in carrying on the Slave-trade—Slavery on the Gold Coast—Slavery and the Slave-trade in Madagascar. IT is perhaps not very surprising, when the extent of the dominions and dependencies of Great Britain are considered, that slavery and the slave-trade should sometimes unex- pectedly be found to exist within its borders, though, when this is the case, it must be matter of humiliation and regret. It has recently been brought to light in England, by the indefatigable Dr. Leitner, the principal of the Government College at Lahore, that a large and barbarous slave-trade is carried on by the Ameer of Affghanistan, who is a quasi feudatory of Great Britain, by whom he is regularly supplied with improved Snider rifles and a large subsidy. Barbarous raids are continually carried on, on the neigh- bouring tribe of Siah Posh Kafirs, which at present num- bers about 300,000, but is threatened with destruction. The people are described as a noble race, supposed to be the descendants of a settlement of Christians of remote antiquity. Armed only with rude weapons they are unable to resist C 2 20 THE LOST CONTINENT. the Affghans with the Sniders supplied to their enslavers by the Indian Government. In reference to this subject the Editor of Public Opinion, at Lahore, wrote in May, 1874 :(—* It is well known, that slaves ave purchased by British subjects within the boundaries of British territory, and that many a beautiful Siah Posh girl has been torn Jrom her relatives and friends, and has ended her days in misery in the havems of our native fellow-subjects. It is well-known, to every one well acquainted with the Kafirs, that within the last few years numerous villages of the Siah Posh have been conquered by the Affghan Mohammedans, almost solely on account of the high market value of female slaves from Kafiristan; and it ought to be well known, although we believe it is not as well known as it should be, that there are agents for the purchase of slaves, who carry on their unholy traffic EVEN IN BRITISH TERRITORY.” In speaking in a public meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in London, Dr. Leitner said :— ‘““ Then comes the case of our ally, the Ameer of Cabool. Whether he can be called a feudatory is perhaps not techni- cally correct, but there is not the least doubt that he lives by our breath, and the prestige which we give him; and in practically acknowledging his infant son, and giving the Ameer money and arms, we have certainly assumed the posi- “tion of a ‘paramount’ power towards him. Now, if he is to SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 21 «deserve our support, all I can say is, that, the paramount’ power being a civilised one, the guasi-feudatory power should conduct itself as a civilised one also. Now, there exist under the Ameer some populations more or less savage, some of which perhaps are not entitled to very great consideration, but all of which are deserving of consideration as human beings; others, again, are most emphatically deserving our protection, and these are the Siah Posh Kafirs. These Kafirs consider themselves the brothers of the Europeans—they are neither Hindoos nor Mohammedans, but it has been said have a sort of guasi Chris- tianity—increasing as it were, if it could possibly be increased, our sympathy for them. This is the race that is now suc- cessfully preyed upon by the Ameer. I say successfully, because it has been certainly successful since we have pro- vided the Ameer of Cabool with improved fire-arms. These people have for ages maintained their independence, and even the Ameer of Cabool has not been able wholly to conquer them. Some believe that the Siah Posh Kafirs are descend- ants of a colony planted by Alexander himself; but whether ‘that be so or not, this race will scon be exterminated, unless this Society and the public generally move in the matter. The Russians have done a great deal in stopping slavery on one side of Central Asia. All honour to the Emperor Alexander.” 22 THE LOST CONTINENT. The attention of Lord Salisbury having recently been turned to this slave-trade there is good ground to believe that his Lordship, with his usual promptitude, will deal properly with the affair. The slavery in the British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa, which has so long been a reproach to Great Britain, has now received its death-blow by the decided and judicious course taken by Lord Carnarvon, but it will require great watchfulness and firmness on the part of the Foreign Office if its policy is to become really effectual. It is also equally necessary that the British public should continue to take an interest in the case. The greatest difficulties will probably be those raised by European merchants. On this subject it has been well observed :(— “ The memorials of the native chiefs to the Queen and to her representative at the Gold Coast are evidently of Euro- pean origin. They clothe native feelings in civilised ideas and arguments. These documents might very well have proceeded from a conference of American or West Indian planters when emancipation impended over the slave-owners of the Southern States or Jamaica. We hear prophecies of the entire destruction of the palm oil trade, and of agricul- tural production, of the disorganisation of society, of a servile war, of the impoverishment of the masters and the SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 23 violence of their former slaves, and of another Ashantee _ invasion, if the policy of immediate manumission, proclaimed and partially acted upon by Governor Strahan, should be insisted on. The chiefs appeal—in language familiar in the mouths of more civilised champions of vested interests— against the violation of the rights of property. But there is no help for it now. The position taken up in the proclama- tion of Governor Strahan cannot be departed from. England has, prudently or imprudently, charged herself with a work at the Gold Coast which she must bring, at whatever cost, to a successful issue. Freedom must exist there as in every other part of the Queen’s dominions. The deepest convic- tions of the nation and its keenest sense of honour prohibit any connivance with slavery within the limits of the British Empire.” The position of Madagascar with regard both to slavery and the slave-trade is anomalous. The importation of slaves and the conversion of her people to Christianity, run side by side. The customary atrocities of slavery in other places are found in Madagascar ;—families are separated —the slaves bought and sold like cattle. Slave markets exist in Antananarivo and many other towns. The address forwarded sometime ago by the Paris Anti-Slavery Bureaux, to Queen Ranovalomanjake and her prime-minister, Rainil- aidriodny, has probably at length produced some effect. 24 THE LOST CONTINENT. A proclamation was issued by the Queen last October, declaring free all slaves brought into the Island since June, 1865, the date of the treaty made with England, America, and France, for the suppression of the slave-trade. This, though only a beginning, is a step forward, and highly creditable to the Queen of Madagascar. The position of a missionary in that country, as in all others where slavery exists, is one of delicacy and difficulty, but the Gospel should not be separated from its morality. The lesson taught by the great war in America ought not to be lost upon the present generation. Had the ministers of the Christian religion in the United States performed their duty that war might never have occurred. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 25 CHAPTER III. Slavery and the Slave-trade in the Portuguese Settlements on the East Coast of Africa and the African Island of St. Thomas. THE slave-trade is still extensively carried on in the Portuguese settlements on the East Coast of Africa. The Portuguese Government, which is bound by treaty to suppress it, is generally reticent on the subject, and as we have had no Consul at Mozambique, the capital of those extensive settlements, since 1858, it is on rare occasions that the veil which covers that dark part of Africa is lifted. The principal traffic in the Mozambique Channel still is the slave-trade, and probably the principal market beyond the sea, Madagascar. The Portuguese ministers allege that the over-sea slave-trade cannot be large, because the seizure of their vessels is rare. ~ But the traffic is carried on in Arab dhows, and when seizures take place the Portuguese escape the stigma. "The following passage from the evidence of Captain Sullivan, before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, shows the working of the affair :— “ Another reason: why the fact of the Portuguese sharing 26 THE LOST CONTINENT. in this slave-trade does not come under observation is, that it is carried on by them in Arab dhows, under the Arab flag; and thus when these vessels are captured, the stigma is cast on the Sultan. Moreover, they have recently adopted the title of ¢ free negroes ’ for the slaves, and have established a system of passports in vessels carrying their own flags, in consequence of which, detection—or, at any rate, capture and condemnation—are next to impossible. Ask any of the ten thousand negroes that crowd the streets of Mozambique where they come from, and the reply is the same as that of the slaves captured on board of the dhows :—stolen, dragged from their homes and families, sold and bought, sold and bought again, and brought from the markets on the mainland to this place, where they are worse off than they were before. “ On the 6th of September, we boarded such a Portuguese schooner as is referred to above, bound from Quilimane River south to Mozambique Harbour, with several slaves on board. Amongst them were four Monginda children, from five to ten years of age, whom a Banyan (a British subject), of Mozambique, who was on board, claimed and showed pass- ports for, under the name of ‘free negroes,’ signed by the Portuguese authority of Quilimane. These children could speak no language intelligible either to our interpreter, or to the Portuguese or Banyans on board the schooner; and although we put some questions to them, and tried by signs SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 27 to make them understand us, it was all in vain, which proved ~ that they had only recently been brought from the interior. The case was most palpable, yet we could not take the risk of detaining the vessel and sending her to the Cape, the only place to which we could legally send her, on account of the passports and her unseaworthiness. Never conceiving it possible, however, that the Governor could have decided that these children, and the other negroes on board, were not slaves, I sent her into Mozambique, to obtain his opinion of destroying her, if they were declared to be slaves. This cer- tainly was a severe test of the honesty of the profession of the Portuguese with respect to the abolition of the slave-trade, and it proved too severe for them. The Governor assured me that they were ‘free negroes’ and had passports.” The Blue-Book of 1873 contains the following remarks in a paper addressed by Captain Elton to Sir Bartle Frere :— ““ At Quilimane and on the Zambesi, on the adjoining rivers, such as the Mecusa and the Mariagomo, and especially on the Angoxa, the question of implication in slave traffic becomes serious, and the extreme difficulty with which reli- able information can be collected is hardly appreciable to people at a distance. The involved interest, distrust, and, above all, the intense jealousy of all foreign interference, combine to render both a tedious and disagreeable task. The custom of permitting individuals to own small armies of 28 THE LOST CONTINENT. slaves has worked the complete destruction of all law, and the seeds of rebellion have been sown broadcast by the atrocities which slave-hunting marauders have committed on tribes whose natural bent it would be to dwell in peace. “The inland slave-trade cannot be said to have been sup- pressed. About Christmas 1870, a gang of about one hundred women and children were brought down from the Shire by a native chief to the town of Quilimane for sale. I arrived there from Mozambique about the roth January, 1871, when the matter was openly talked about, and I saw a number of the recently-purchased slaves.” The necessity of a Consul at Mozambique has on several occasions within the last few years been pressed upon the British Government, and more recently has been strongly recommended by Sir Bartle Frere. Such an appointment, if suitably made, could scarcely fail to assist both in the suppression of the slave-trade, and slavery, and in the substitution of lawful commerce in its place. But everything depends upon the selection of the right man. Although Portugal has passed more than one Act for the abolition of slavery, she is still a slave-holding Power. In the year 1858 Portugal passed a law declaring that Slavery should be entirely suppressed throughout her depend-- encies in twenty years. In 1869 she passed another law, the first article of which runs thus— SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 29 ¢ The condition of slavery is abolished throughout all the territories of the Portuguese monarchy, from the date of publi- cation of the present decree.” : But the third article provides that the services of the said freedmen shall pertain to the persons to whom they had previously belonged, thus rendering the act perfectly valueless. A man in such a position is a slave by whatever name he may be called. Slavery exists not only in the East African settlements of Portugal, but also, so far as is known, in her little island of St. Thomas, on the West Coast. To this island a species of slave-trade was carried on under the name of libertos, so recently as 1866. Portugal should now pass an Act making slavery illegal in all her possessions, and the slave-trade piracy. In no other way will she be able to fulfil her Treaty engagements, and by no other course will she effect so much for the good of her subjects. Portugal was the first to introduce slavery and the slave-trade, let her not be the last to abolish them. One thing redounds to the honour of the present King of Portugal and his ministers—they have abolished the slave- trade recently carried on between Macao and Peru. In that traffic it is humiliating to know that the number of British vessels employed was greater than those of any other nation, It is not very satisfactory to know that about the time 30 THE LOST CONTINENT. the British Government was engaged in pleading with the Portuguese Government to suppress the Chinese coolie traffic at Macao, it should have been treating with the Viceroy of Canton for the reopening of the traffic to the West Indies. This permission having been obtained, the public ought to be informed, how many of the British Slavers rendered idle at Macao are to be employed in conveying the Chinese to Demarara and the other English colonies. Many of the vessels have been built in British ports, and are furnished with iron gratings and other slave-trade equipments, stored away in the hold ready to be brought out and fixed when the vessel is clear of the British waters, or on arrival at the port of embarkation. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 3X CHAPTER 1V, Slavery in Brazil—Rapid Decrease in the number of Slaves—Extra- ordinary Death-Rate—Inefficiency of the Abolition Law of 1871— Urgent Necessity of Freedom. THERE is a common but mistaken notion that slavery has been abolished in Brazil. The Christian Emperor of Brazil still rules over the largest slave population in the world. The present number of slaves in his dominions is about a million and a half. In 1818, according to a census made by order of King John, the number was two millions. This shows a decrease of half a million. But to this decrease must be added the number of fresh slaves introduced into Brazil from Africa between 1818 and 1851, during the greater part of which time the slave-trade was carried on in violation of treaties with Great Britain. The late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, in 1839, estimated the number of Africans introduced at that time into Brazil at the rate of one hundred thousand per annum. | Writing in 18309, he says: “I should conjecture that the real amount would be moderately rated at one hundred thousand, brought annually into these five Brazilian ports. » 32 THE 1.0ST CONTINENT. But as the question is, not how many I suppose, but how many I can show to be landed, I must confine myself to what I can prove—and I have proved that seventy-eight thousand three hundred and thirty-one were landed at five ports in Brazil, in the course of twelve months, ending at the oth June, 1830.” What has become of the absolute decrease of the half- million, and the total imports of seventy or a hundred thou- sand fresh victims per annum through a long course of years ? What are the causes which have produced a death-rate like this? Private manumissions have been numerous; but they will not materially account for such a result. M. Passy, in speaking on this subject in the Academy of Science in Paris in 1870, stated, on the authority of M. ; Gobineau, the French Minister at the Brazilian Court, that the number of slaves then in Brazil was two millions in | place of four millions in 1852. Whether these figures be : perfectly accurate or not, there can be no doubt that a rate of mortality exists which cannot be accounted for on the ‘score of the climate of the country, which is peculiarly adapted to the negro race, or by any known satisfactory cause. In view of such an appalling decrease in the labouring population of the country, it is not surprising that the statesmen of Brazil should see the necessity of attracting emigrants to the country. They have made many attempts SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 33 in this direction, but so far without success. In every country slavery, by degrading labour, keeps free men out of the field; this was the case in the Southern States of America previous to the civil war. Emigrants from all parts of the world flocked into the free states, but they in- variably shunned the slave states. To these facts, patent to everybody else, the Brazilian statesman shuts his eyes. The Empire of Brazil is almost the largest in the world, with virgin lands and resources that might be turned into marvellous blessings, not only to the people of Brazil, but to all civilized nations. In every point of view the interest of Brazil would be pro- moted by a law for the entire removal of slavery. There appeared some probability that such a measure would be enacted in 1871, when the Liberal party was in power, and a Bill was prepared, which, though defective and insufficient, was intended in good faith to put an end to slavery. But the Conservative party in Brazil got the upper hand, and though originally opposed to all interference with slavery, passed an Act to prevent what they thought a worse thing from befalling them. : The Act passed bears the marks of its parentage, and under it slavery may yet last fifty years. The slaves belonging to the State and the religious houses were to be set free; but the bulk of the slaves are left in hopeless bondage for life. D 34 THE LOST CONTINENT. The children born of slave mothers after the passing of the Act were to be free, but are to ‘“ remain in the power and to be under the authority of the owners, till the age of twenty- one.” As there are many noble-minded men in Brazil opposed to the further continuance of slavery, and as there ‘is no pre- judice against colour or race in that country, there are fewer difficulties than usual in dealing with the evil. It is, besides, well known that the Emperor desires to see slavery disappear from his dominions. If this be done in safety it must be done in time, for sooner or later Providence vindicates His own laws. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 33 CHAREER:YV. The Asiatic Slave-trade—The French Colonies— British West Indies and Mauritius—Chinese in Peru. WHILST the attention of the world is so imperiously called to the slave-trade in Africa, it must not be overlooked that a new slave-trade has sprung up within the last forty years, under the name of Immigration. As the late Honorable Charles Sumner truly observed, the old enemy has started up under an alias. Boston, 8th September, 1869. My peEAR MR. COOPER,— I acknowledge with pleasure your favour of the 4th August, and am glad to see our Anti-Slavery friends moving against the old enemy under an alias—[the labour traffic]. In conformity with your suggestion I have requested the De- partment of State to direct our Consuls and Consular Agents to make the desired inquiries. . . I send you the letter of Senator Nabuco, of Brazil, on Eman- cipation, forwarded to me by the Brazilian Legation, at the request of the Senator. In acknowledging it, I felt it my duty to say that the Senator himself did not go far enough :—that the longer continuance D2 36 THE LOST CONTINENT. of Slavery is inconsistent with the civilisation of the age," besides being essentially wrong; and that it ought to be ter- minated at once. Of this I have no doubt. Slavery will end very soon in Cuba. It cannot remain much longer in Brazil. This earth will be fairer when this terrible blot is erased. I am grieved that you should not see my speech in its true character. It was an honest effort to state our case so that England should know it, believing that the first duty of States- manship is to remove all existing grievances between two countries, which cannot be done until the grievance is under- stood. There must be a diagnosis of the case before the remedy is discussed. In what I do now, I act according to those early sentiments of Peace, which are the dearest to my heart. I complain now of England as opening the way to war, God forbid ! Believe me, my dear friend, Sincerely yours, CHARLES SUMNER. To oppose free migration from one part of the world to another at the present day, would be simply absurd—to oppose the slave-trade under any name is a necessity. That the working of the present system of Immigration is not equally injurious in every country may be admitted; but in all there are certain features that will not bear exami- nation. The vice of the immigration system as now carried on is, that it converts man into property. Previous to embarkation the immigrant must sign a contract, and imme- SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 37 diately the contract is signed he becomes the property of another. The contract is a chain round his neck on-his landing at his destination. He is then as much marketable property as an ordinary slave. The immigrants are in fact bought and sold like cattle, and in some countries the planter ordinarily puts the question : “What is the price of coolies to-day ’—just as a merchant in London or Paris would inquire the rate of Exchange or the price of the Funds. The deplorable condition of the Chinese immigrants in Cuba has often been described. Captain F. Trench Towns- hend in his work just published, as the result of personal observation, writes :— “Though the fate of the poor African slave in Cuba is horrible, that of the unfortunate Asiatic, who is serving under contract, struck me as even more pitiable. “The wan face, feeble frame, and dejected looks of the wretched Chinamen were absolutely painful to see. Having enjoyed the blessings of freedom up to the hour when his evil fate led him to quit his native country, the poor China- man is ill-treated on board ship in a fearful manner, and on reaching Cuba is bought, sold, subjected to the lash, and compelled to work like the negro slaves. Against such treatment his natural intelligence and inborn sense of free- dom rebel, and he either runs away and engages in some 38 THE LOST CONTINENT. trade in the large towns or goes about a miserable heart- broken wretch. The law forbids their being subjected to the lash, or the sale of the contract against the will of the Chinaman contracted for; but in both respects the law is set at nought, and the Cuban buys and flogs his Chinese slave openly and with impunity. I asked what became of the Chinaman when his seven years’ contract was ended. I was answered that the Government then got hold of them, so that not even after seven or more years of slavery does the unfortunate Chinaman regain his liberty. “That there was any course short of absolute prohibition of the export of coolies to the Spanish West Indies, and the forcible prevention of the traffic by the English fleet, likely to be of any benefit to poor John Chinaman, none, among those best able to judge, believed.” Tae FrencaH COLONIES. In the French Colonial possessions great oppression is known to exist—the coolies are marketable property, and have no such thing as efficient protection. A Commission of Inquiry into the whole subject was appointed in Paris last year, at the instance of M. Scheelcher, the gentleman to whom the credit of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1848 is mainly due. The Report which is prepared SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 39 has not yet been printed, but it is said that it will contain a sad exposure of the existing state of things. This may be inferred from the ‘Report of the Under Secretary for India, in reference to the coolies in Réunion, moved for last summer, by Edward Jenkins, Esq., M.P., at the request of the Aborigines Protection Society. This report: states that, “in 1877, there were 771 com- plaints to the Consul. Of these 31°g were for non-payment of wages, 30,649 francs being claimed and 6,530 recovered. There were 230 charges of ill-treatment, in six of which convictions were obtained, and 137 charges of breach of con- tract, with 55 convictions. The results in the remainder, as in 85 cases of ‘ minor claims,’ were not ascertained. In these last two years the complaint of excessive hours of labour being exacted is distinctly formulated by the Consul. Manifestly complaints made to the Consul only exhibit the extremest cases; and there is reason to believe that the powers of the police were called into play to prevent access to the Consul, or to punish those who asserted their right. But as the reports are admittedly one-sided, and the Secre- tary of State has been urged to have the whole question investigated, it will be well not to dogmatise here. The following figures, however, speak for themselves: —In 1868 there were 19,069 committals to gaol, while 10,694 persons were sent to the ateliers de discipline. ‘That is to say, there 40 THE LOST CONTINENT. were 29,763 cases of punishment out of a population of 180,000. According to Captain Segrave, 75 per cent. of these cases occurred among labourers, and 80 per cent. of the labourers were Indians. He estimates that more than one-third of the Indian population was continually in gaol. This must perhaps be taken cum grano,” but it will remind the reader of the state of things in British West Indies, during the apprenticeship which preceded the total abolition of slavery. The condition of the coolies in the other French colonies, Cayenne, Guadaloupe, and Martinique, has been described in the public press as at least no better than that in Réunion. THE MAURITIUS AND THE BriTisH WEST INDIES. In the British West Indies the condition of the coolies varies much, but it cannot be said to be satisfactory in any of the Islands, whilst in the Mauritius cruelty and oppression have been rife. This view has been denied by some who have resided in the Mauritius, and who, therefore, ought to know; but, un- happily for the statements of such people, the Report of the Police Commission of Inquiry instituted by the Governor, Sir A. H. Gordon, and printed with a thick volume of evidence, has, in the main, confirmed all the charges brought against the system. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 41 These charges were contained in a petition to the Governor signed by more than 9,000 old immigrants, that is immi- grants who had worked out their contracted period of service and therefore ought to have become once more free men. The details furnish a pitiable case of oppression, which has scarcely found its parallel in modern times. In order, as it would appear, to compel the coolie to enter a second time into contract, every obstacle has been placed in the way of his maintaining himself by free labour. He is not to move without a pass; he must carry a descriptive ticket and his portrait wherever he goes; he is not even to work without a licence. The police may stop him any- where, and enter his dwelling at any hour of the day or night. He must produce all these things, and if any in- accuracy be detected, though it may not have arisen from any fault of his own, he may be thrown at once into prison. M. De Plevitz, a French gentlemen, performed a great service to humanity in rendering the coolies facilities for putting forward their wrongs. The report of the Commission opens with the words :— “We have found the statements in the Petition, although put in an exaggerated form, to be mainly justified by the law as it exists, under the ordinance of 1867, and the execu- tive regulations following thereon.” The Commissioners proposed the repeal of a considerable 42 THE 1.0ST CONTINENT. number of the existing oppressive regulations—and also the repeal of the charge of one pound for a ticket, five shillings for a permit to work, two shillings for a photograph, and “the licence duty of one pound imposed upon day labourers.” How far these suggestions have been adopted is not yet known. A Royal Commission was appointed in June, 1872, which has not yet reported owing to the lamented illness of the Chief Commissioner. It is too late now to dwell much on the origin of the coolie system in the British West Indies. When emanci- pation took place, though the institution of slavery was gone, the spirit of it remained in the island, and in the hearts of the people it had cursed. Low wages, irregular payments, or no payments at all, exorbitant cottage rents and fraudulent exactions drove the labourers from the estates to seek a livelihood in other ways. Hence the want of labour so far as it did exist, and the attempt to obtain a cheap supply. But the present system, mixed up as it is with fraud in its origin and force in its working, is probably the most expensive that can be employed. The excellent clergyman Henry Clark, of Trinity, Jamaica, says that he has often conversed with the more intelligent coolies, but that he never met with one who did not say that he had been deceived in India, nor one who did not view his going to Jamaica as a calamity. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 43 Tue CHINESE IN PERU. No words can describe the lot of the Chinese in Peru. The system commenced in 1849, between which year and 1869, it appears that ninety thousand Chinese have perished in Peru. What are the causes which have produced this fearful mortality? The truest causes may probably be found in an important paper submitted by Mr. Murrow, to a meeting of the Asso- ciation for the Promotion of Social Science, in the latter year.* Mr. Murrow states that the rate of mortality on the passage from China to Peru in immigrant ships has certainly been twenty-five per cent. But the principal mortality takes place after arrival in Peru. The coolies in guano work are goaded to their labour under the lash. The taskmasters are tall, African negroes, ‘‘ who are armed with a lash of four * What number of coolies have been sent from China to Peru since 1849 to the present time, I have no means of ascertaining, but certainly many more than 100,000. How many of these may be now living it is mere conjecture to compute. I feel pretty sure that not one hundred have ever returned to their native country (notwithstanding that the contracts express a servitude of five years only), so that the number remaining at present in Peru will correctly indicate the residue. I fancy 10,000 would be found considerably over the mark.—“ The Coolie Trade from China to Pern.” 7. J. Murrow, Esq. 44 THE LOST CONTINENT. plaits of cow-hide, five feet in length, and an inch and a half thick, tapering to a point.” This weapon is little used during the early part of the day, but about four o’clock in the after- noon it is put in constant requisition, for the purpose of com- pelling the coolies, who, from weakness or other cause, fall short in the completion of their allotted task. “The slightest resistance is punished by a flogging, little short of murder, the first six or twelve cuts stifling the agonising cries which ring through the fleet. There is no tying-up, the nearest Chinaman being compelled, by a cut of the lash, to lay hold of an arm or leg, and stretch the miser- able sufferer on his stomach on the guano. The mere weight alone of the lash makes their bodies shake, blackening their flesh at every blow, besides cutting into it like a sabre, and when a convulsive movement takes place a subordinate places his boot on the shoulders to keep the quivering body down.” On this subject, in commenting on the able speech of Sir Charles Wingfield, in the House of Commons in 1873, the Times says :(— “In Peru the fate of the imported coolies is even more abomi- nable, They are sent to work in the guano pits on the islands which produce that unsavoury wealth; they are beaten and chained and passed by bargain and sale from master to master, just as the negro slaves in the sugar plantations of the Southern SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 45 States used to be. There is a military force to guard them, and to crush any violence to which despair may drive even the most patient and timid of men. Hope of escape, save by death, there is none; and hence suicide is a common practice, regularly estimated in the probable cost of the labour supply. This ghastly picture is confirmed in its bold outlines and its broad colours by the sober testimony of the official correspondence which has been laid before Parliament.” Mr. Thomas, the American Minister at Lima, writing to the Secretary of State at Washington, in 1873, says :— “Having made careful inquiry on the subject, I am prepared to say that the treatment of these unfortunate Chinese, thus forced violently from their homes by the landholders of Peru, by whom crowds of them are employed, is more harsh than that to which slaves in the United States were formerly subjected.” To recruit free men in China, imprison them in baracoons, guard them with soldiers, induce them to sign contracts, convey them to Peru and on arrival compel them by force to labour in the guano pits, is that which it might have been supposed no man could have been found to defend, but apologists have occasionally made their appearance, which shows that a man may be blinded with guano as effectually as with gold. It not unfrequently happens that when statements of op- pression and cruelty abroad find their way into the public press 46 THE LOST CONTINENT. they are quickly followed by the counter-statements of those who have visited the countries where these evils are alleged to have taken place. The case of Peru forms no exception. The public are occasionally assured by eye-witnesses who have visited some of the larger haciendas in that country that all is right ; that the employers of labour, whether in town or country, are among the kindest and most considerate people on earth, and as to the Government of Peru it is most paternal, and watches over the Chinaman with the most solicitous care for his comfort and well-being. It is not to be supposed that these statements are either altogether untrue, or that they are not, in some instances, published in good faith by those who make them. Among the hundreds of large establishments in Peru, there are doubtless some where kindness and justice are the rule. The traveller not only sees on these estates nothing to offend his sense of justice, but on others also nothing comes before him to which he can take exception—they are all in holiday trim while he is there—he is hospitably entertained, and returns to his own country the warm advocate and defender of he knows not what. He has only seen the surface of things and his impressions are utterly at variance with the testimony of residents in Peru, both private and official. These remarks equally apply to what has occasionally SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 47 taken place in British Colonies and foreign countries. The same thing prevailed during the struggle in this country for the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies. The number of eye-witnesses to the perfect happiness and prosperity of the slave was so great that the work of abolition seemed likely to be impeded in its progress, and probably would have been so had not the death-rate in the West Indies providentially turned up. When it was found that the census showed a decrease in eleven years of fifty-three thousand souls these commendations of slavery lost their force. A new Treaty has just been negotiated between the Em- peror of China and Peru, providing for the continuance or renewal of Chinese coolie traffic. The provisions of the treaty, with one exception, appear fair on the face; but it is to be regretted that any treaty should have been entered into pending the inquiry then being made by a Chinese Commissioner in Peru. The British Envoy in Pekin has had a hand in the negocia- tion.» His intentions are not to be doubled; but as no treaty, however worded, can put an end to the mischief of the present system, it is deeply to be regretted that if called in at all, he did not enter his emphatic protest against the whole affair. Of course the Chinese Commission of Inquiry in Peru is at an end. The Commissioners have returned to Shanghai—the first unfavourable fruit of the 48 THE LOST CONTINENT. new treaty. It is stated that another Commission is to be appointed, which must, however, be taken for what it is worth. All that has taken place in Peru, for the last twenty-five years, ought not to have been overlooked, neither should it have been forgotten that the Peruvian Government have made many promises of amendment which have never been fulfilled. In the list of property for sale coolies still figure with sheep, oxen and pigs. No treaties can cure the present state of things, the system is bad and the contract made in China is the vice of it. It is stated that the Peruvian Government has decided to take the immigration system into its own hands, in order to prevent in future the fearful mortality which has occurred at sea. This, as far as it goes, may be successful, but it does not touch the main objections to the system. The immigrant enters the country in bonds, can neither choose his master or his employment, and is bought and sold at the market price. Another argument put forth is that many of the Chinese have become prosperous in Lima, the capital. It would be strange if, out of such enormous numbers, some had not survived and done well for themselves. But the proportion of such is so trifling that it cannot be successfully advanced in defence of the system. There are it is true a number of respectable Chinese mer- cantile firms in Lima, but they are mainly composed of SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 49 Chinese from California—free emigrants who have never been brought under the bonds of labour contracts. It is asserted that the intentions of the Peruvian Govern- ment are good, and its laws humane; but even if this be true, it is well known that the executive is extremely weak even in the towns,—as to the outlying and distant haceindos, where the Chinese are principally employed, it is absolutely power- less. The Patria, a Peruvian paper, writing about a year ago, remarks :(— “The corporeal punishment applied to the Asiatics, who from whatever motive may have made themselves amenable to correction, is extremely severe; it consists of lashes laid on in a manner which recalls, and even goes beyond, the barbarity of the Russian Knout, as it was practised during the existence of serfdom. “The overseers who look after them are of an infinitely lower moral type than those who have been infamously im- mortalised by those who have written about slavery. “ Hundreds of these same workmen do their daily work, and retire to their sheds laden with chains, in the same manner as galley-slaves who fulfil their sentence labouring on public works. By what right do the masters of coolies use these penalties, or means of security, or how can they be justified ? 50 THE 1.0ST CONTINENT. “The system of alimentation is quite deficient for the preservation and restoration of their strength; this, in a great measure, explains the numbers of blind Chinese which we see in our streets. “Let Peruvian patriotism listen attentively, and the Christian charity which doubtless exists in the country hear what we are about to say. The negro slave on the Cuban ingenios is not so miserable, by a long way, as the contracted coolie who comes to till the fields of Peru.” SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 51 CHAPTER VI. The Fiji Islands—The Contract System. Tue annexation of Fiji has been quickly followed by the introduction of the Polynesian Labour Act of 1868. The proclamation of the temporary Governor provides that the Act shall be the law under which the import of labour shall be regulated in Fiji, but that in some respects it shall be subject to modification. What changes are likely to be made are not yet fully known. But the Act is unsound in principle, and is in many respects so defective that it is impossible to view its introduction without regret. It will probably be generally admitted that it has not effected any of the objects for which it was passed. When the Act first reached this country from Queens- land, its various provisions were carefully examined by M. Chamerovzow, many years the able Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, and the result presented in due form to the Duke of Buckingham, then Secretary for the Colonies. The statement did not at the time receive the attention it deserved, but the working of the Act has vindicated the views then set forth. 52 THE LOST CONTINENT. Since the Act passed, the Carl outrage, with many other atrocities, have taken place; some of the islands have been depopulated, and white life is now everywhere more insecure. That the Brisbane Act should have been thus hurriedly introduced into Fiji is deeply to be regretted. If the latest accounts from residents in the Fijis are correct, many of the more remote districts are at the present time scenes of oppression and cruelty never exceeded in the worst days of the worst slave colony. The Earl of Carnarvon has made a wise choice in appointing Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon to the Governor- ship of Fiji. His Excellency has proved himself possessed of the highest qualifications for the arduous post: but it would surely have been wiser to have allowed time for him to reach his post previous to taking steps it may be difficult to retrace. The Fijis in British hands ought to have been made absolutely free and not contract labour settlements, with a population half free—half in bonds. Neither treaties, laws, or regulations, will avail to remove the evils of the present system. The contract system is the root of the mischief and must be abolished. It is agreed on all hands that the ignorant victims cannot comprehend the meaning of these contracts, and that no explanation can enable them to do so. The immigrants are in most cases SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. £3 alike ignorant of the language of the country to which they are taken, the kind of work they are expected to do, of the cost of living, and the climate. Bishop Patteson,* in refe- rence to the South Sea Islanders said, “I do not believe it possible for any traders to make a bond fide contract with any of the natives.” The contracts are a fraud, and therefore not morally binding; this being so, they ought not to be made out of the country where the labour has to be done. If made, they ought not to be binding in law. By such a provision many of the evils of the present system would be remedied, and the right sort of people only might be expected to emigrate. The Government of the United States does not recognise these contracts, and has made it felony for American ships to carry coolies under labour contracts in any part of the world. In countries where all is, in the main, fair and right, such contracts are not needed, they are only required where the labour is forced and not properly requited. In reference to this subject Sir C. Wingfield has remarked: — “My hostility is confined to emigration carried on by the machinery of crimps, barracoons, agencies, and contracts which are merely instruments of coercion, and are not needed for coun- tries that offer real inducements to emigration. Thus Sir F. Bruce writes, ‘A Chinaman’s object in emigrating is the ac- * See Appendix C. 54 THE LOST CONTINENT. quisition of wealth, and in the Straits full play is given to this motive by leasing land to him for sugar cultivation; but he will not work as a slave, especially if he finds advantage has been taken of him to obtain his labour at less than the market rates.’ This remark is the key to the whole emigration question. A man emigrates to make his position better, not worse. To the countries which I have named the Chinese flock in crowds. Between China and California, especially, there is a constant stream of Chinese going and returning, owing to the facilities afforded by a splendid line of steamers. There is no instance on record of a rising on board any one of these vessels. The mortality is not above the death-rate on land. Sir R. MacDonell, who made the voyage in one of these steamers with 1,200 coolies on board, testifies to this. Such emigration is beneficial to the Chinese themselves; but I utterly deny that any improving or civilising influences can be imparted under a system by which the so-called emigrants are kidnapped and coerced, and pass their lives in slavery, under masters who are governed by no motive but cupidity.” The Government of Japan has recently absolutely pro- hibited these contracts on the ground of their immorality. The United States of America have marked their sense of the dishonesty of these contracts by an Act of Congress making it a penal offence to carry any indentured Chinese under their flag. A writer in the Times asks why Great Britain does not follow the example, and purge the country from all complicity with the acts of slavers and kidnappers. A fair remuneration for labour, cheap passage, the aid of SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 55 friends and relatives, would be found sufficient to induce immigrants to flock to those countries where labour is re- quired, and where their condition would be made better. In the later days of British West Indian slavery, ‘‘ wages or the whip” became an axiom; the same idea may now be conveyed in the words ‘‘ wages or the contract.” In addition to all the other evils involved in the system is that of temporary serfdom. When an estate is sold, the coolies go with the property and the other live-stock, and they have no more power to choose their masters than have the cattle on the estate. Thus it is seen, in the present day, that while one great nation puts an end to serfdom, another makes a beginning. Few things in past times have gained for England more honour in the world than the testimony she has borne against slavery and the slave-trade. Her exertions and her sacrifices to put down these evils have commanded the respect of all nations, and have given her an influence that should enable her to complete the work. But, unless a change speedily takes place, this influence will be impaired, if not destroyed. It cannot be otherwise when the true character and inherent evils of the contract labour traffic come to be generally known. This conse- quence will not be obviated by any of the arguments com- monly adduced in defence of the system. The most potent 56 THE LOST. CONTINENT. of these is, perhaps, the statement that the produce of the colonies has been increased by it. The same reason might with equal force have been adduced in defence of slavery and the old slave-trade itself. In fact, this was the main argument of the importers of slaves formerly, and con- sidered a justification which rendered an appeal to moral considerations and the interests of humanity as altogether unnecessary. It would, however, be a great mistake to imagine that the prosperity of the colonies could not be increased by other and legitimate means. But were it not so, the pecuniary interest of proprietors ought not surely to override all other considerations, and to blind the country to the guilt, misery, and destruction of life which have marked the contract system. To the United States and several other parts of the world coolies find their way in large numbers, because they are free and obtain the market price for their labour. This is the system to which England must come, if her colonies also are to be abundantly supplied with labour on conditions not immoral. It has been the custom of the British Government not to allow coolies to be introduced into slave colonies. The reasons for this course are obvious, and certainly apply with great force to Fiji, where all the evils of slavery are known a SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 57 to exist. In writing recently on this subject to the Fiji Times, the ““ Rev.” Frederick Langham, District Chairman of the Wesleyan Missions, gives, in detail, a large number of cases of cruelty and oppression, which plainly show that, “in all its leading features, slavery exisis in Fiji in iis most odious and revolting character.” It must not be imagined that the South Sea Islanders’ Protection Act will put an end to the new species of slave- trade among the Polynesian Islands. How far this Act is working in the right direction may, in part, be seen by the following letter recently received fiom the “ Rev.” R. H. Codrington, the successor of the lamented Bishop Patteson:— “On August 3oth we were ashore at Ureparapara; a vessel was then lying in the bay, which we were told was ‘a good ship,’ 7.e. a trader in béche la mer, or something of that sort. We accordingly paid no attention to it, till, coming down from the village, we were told that it was ‘a thief ship,’ 4.2. a labour vessel; and that several Motlay people had swam away from her in the night, because they had been improperly got, and that there were others who wanted to escape, but were afraid of the captain. John Selwyn and I went on board with a Motlay man, through whom we could perfectly well communicate with the boys in question by means of Mota. Four boys—one a Christian out of our school—declared to the face of the Government 58 THE LOST CONTINENT. Agent through his own interpreter (for he refused to have anything to do with ours), that they did not wish to go to Queensland, and had not been properly engaged. Their story was that they had been asked to come on board by the native agent to see him, and then, on a boat coming back from the shore, had been told that it had been settled with their friends that they were to go—had been ‘bought.’ I cannot tell, nor can any one, whether this was all true. I have ascertained since that when the boys went on board they never told any one they were going to Queensland. But observe, the Government Agent, whose business it is to see that no natives are engaged without a deal of printed form, is told by his own man, in English, that the boys do not, and did not, wish to go as ‘labour,’ and he refuses to give them up, in his own written words, because ‘he considered that it was greatly on the impulse of the moment that they stated their wish to return.” He undertook, if, on his return from the Torres Islands, they were in the same mind, to return them; but of course they never returned. Consider what an absolute farce this is: the man keeps boys who declare to his face that they have been deceived, and do not want to go, because in his own mind he feels sure that when they came on board they did wish to go. The boys are carried off because Mr. Pelham Obbard, the Govern- ment Agent, takes the evidence of his own judgment, SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 59 that they came willingly on board to go to Queensland, when they declare they came on board to visit a country- 2” man. But not only do the evils of slavery exist in Fiji, but the slave-trade also. The cost of passage-money between the Islands and Fiji generally ranges between twenty and forty shillings per head; but the cost of delivering natives freight free in Fiji varies from £10 to £15, according to demand and supply. This latter is all called passage-money, though in reality it comprised the bribes given to the chiefs or connections of the victims and the costs of kidnapping. ¢ On the arrival of fresh Polynesians in Levuka, they are sold to the planters like any other prticle of commerce.” Had the Government of the United States, instead of England, annexed the Fijis the laws of America would have effectually prevented the introduction of the contract system, with the frauds inseparable from it. Neither the South Sea slave-trade nor slavery in any form could then have found a place. No man would have been converted into property. The market price would have been paid for labour, and so soon as the islanders found that it was to their interest to take their labour to Fiji the supply would have been as abundant there as it is in America, and probably in every really free country in the world. 60 THE LOST CONTINENT. CHAPTER VII Slavery in Cuba—The Slave-Trade Treaties—Destruction of Life— Working of Slavery on the Estates—Captain Townshend’s Visit— Fashionable Prejudice—Conduct of the Blacks: testimony of Governors of Jamaica—Leeward Islands. IN the Spanish island of Cuba, as nearly as can be ascer- tained, there are 369,000 slaves at the present time. Between the years 1814 and 1845, five Treaties or Conven- tions for the suppression of the slave-trade were entered into between Great Britain and Spain. The second treaty was made in 1817, when Great Britain paid Spain £400,000 for her absolute engagement to put an end to the slave-trade. At this date there were 199,145 slaves in Cuba. Subsequent to this the slave-trade was carried on in viola- tion of treaty obligations for a period of about fifty years. The traffic was contraband by Spanish law as well as under British treaty for which Spain had received her price. The exact number of slaves which have been thus surrep- titiously introduced into Cuba from Africa, in violation of the treaties, never can be known. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, in 1838, computed it at 60,000 annually. Local witnesses SLAVERY AND THE .SLAVE-TRADE. 61, at that time placed it at 100,000 per annum. This does not include the number of those slaughtered in Africa, or those who perished in the middle passage. Looking carefully over all the information that has been published from time to time, a low estimate would show that a million and a quarter of slaves have been introduced since the earlier treaties were made. Supposing the last census to be correct, a million of men are missing—what has become of them? Perhaps an answer to this question may be found in the account given of a recent visit to Cuba, in an interesting volume just published by Captain Trench Townshend.* Being desirous to see slavery as it really exists, Captain Townshend obtained permission to visit a sugar plantation near Havana. “Qutside the crushing-house fifty or sixty negro children, apparently from six to twelve years old, of both sexes, were occupied piling the canes on the elevator which conveyed them to the crushing-wheel, fresh loads being constantly brought in ox-waggons from the fields. Toiling away for their very lives in the broiling sunshine, the poor little wretches kept a constant eye on a formidable cow-hide whip, wielded by a negro who stood by ready to crack it across their bare backs if they attempted to idle, or eat the sugar-cane. % «Wild Life in Florida, and a Visit to Cuba,” by E. Trench Townshend, B.A. Hurst & Blackett. 1875. 62 THE LOST CONTINENT. « From the mill we proceeded to the negro barracks, as their quarters are termed, consisting of brick buildings one story high, enclosing a large square, entered through double iron gates. As we passed in two ferocious-looking Cuban bloodhounds, chained one on either side of the gate, sniffed suspiciously near our legs, but, being trained to run down or attack negroes only, did not molest us. “On the ground-floor, opening on to the courtyard, were the negroes’ rooms, secured by heavily-barred and padlocked doors. Opening one of these we found ourselves in one of the most horrible dens imaginable. Walls black with dirt, uneven clay floors about fourteen feet square, no means of admitting daylight or air except by the door; a wooden table, bench and bedstead, the sole furniture. On the latter hung the remnants of a filthy blanket, while the worst filth covered the floor, furniture, and walls, which also were alive with vermin. In each of these pestiferous dungeons a whole family lived, in a condition more foul and degraded than any beasts of the field. We looked into several and found them alike, while from an open drain, a few feet from the doors, a most sickening stench proceeded. . “In quarters, the Chinese were considerably better off, occupy- ing separate huts at some distance from the negro barracks, and living entirely by themselves. Nominally not subject to the lash, in reality they experience the same treatment as the African, and are compelled to work the same time—eighteen hours a-day in the busy season—a fearful task in such a climate. . « . « By the Moret law, every child born in Cuba is free, and every negro becomes free on attaining the age of sixty. I asked how this law worked? The answer was, that the Moret SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 63 law compels the children to work in return for their maintenance up to their eighteenth year. So, as yet, it has made no difference, while the few negroes who live to the age of sixty, are then unfit for work, and a good riddance to the planter. The average duration of life of an imported African is, I was told, little more than five years, if worked as a field-hand on a plantation. On some of the Cuban plantations the slaves live less miserably than on others, but on all they are compelled to work to a cruel extent. ¢ Eighteen hours a-day for six days out of seven, under a Cuban sun, is horrible brutality, and soon wears out even the mag- nificently-powerful frame of the African, whose strength is kept constantly exerted to its very utmost efforts by the lash of the slave-driver. Sundays are kept on different days by different gangs; that is to say, one holiday is granted out of seven days to each gang in turn—a precaution taken lest all the slaves should combine together to escape, or murder their masiers. . .. . “What I saw of slavery on the Cuban plantations filled me with horror of the institution, and quite did away with my previous leaning towards it, even in the milder form. It is all very well to say that the slave is sleek and fat, well cared for, and happier in that condition than when free ; but those who say so, and I have often heard it said, should observe the cowed, dejected bearing of the slave, and the number of scarred, maimed, half-starved, and prematurely worn-out negroes seen even in the streets of Havana.” Great credit is due to Captain Townshend for giving to the 64 THE LOST CONTINENT. world what he saw of the working of slavery both Asiatic and African in Cuba, though it is to be regretted that he should endorse the fallacy about the negro so fashionable in certain circles. It might perhaps do no harm to some of our popular writers sometimes to recur to what the English people were some two thousand years ago, when they were in the habit of selling their wives and children as slaves. When Cicero described them as the ugliest and most stupid slaves that were brought to Rome. The allusion of Captain Townshend to Jamaica is unfor- tunate. The case of that Island fairly looked at will not sustain the views of those who cast indiscriminate reflections on the negroes. The despatches and addresses of Sir Lionel Smith and the Marquis of Sligo, successive Governors of Jamaica after emancipation took place, ought to have settled that question long ago. As to the commercial state of the Island, it may fairly be a matter of surprise that it has not been worse, considering that a very large number of the estates were deeply mort- gaged when emancipation took place ; that they were owned by absentees and managed by attorneys; and, further, and beyond all, that the masters and managers (with some noble exceptions) were unwilling to conform their conduct to the new order of things when freedom came. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 65 The report presented by Major Prendeville, the chief of the constabulary force in Jamaica to Sir Peter Grant, is in itself a testimony to the industry and good character of the negro population in Jamaica. The report is dated December, 1870, and is too long for insertion, but here is an extract from it :— “But in this country, with all its facilities for acquiring, on easy terms, the necessities for life, it cannot be said that idleness, and consequently vagrancy, prevails to any alarming extent. In the towns, especially in Kingston—the great centre of commerce and of population (34,314)—there are a goodly number of vagrants ; but it is not so in the rural districts. The Inspector for Clarendon (where there is a population of 42,747) reports ‘that it has not come to his notice that any class of persons in that parish are leading a notoriously idle and vagabond life,’ and that ¢ the people are all employed either on the estates, or cultivating their own grounds, or chipping logwood.” The Inspector for St. Ann’s (population 39,547) says that ‘the people, as a rule, work very well, and are industrious.” The Inspector for Trelawney (popu- lation 28,812) expresses pleasure in stating that the peasantry in his district ¢ appear to be industriously disposed.” The Inspector for St. Mary’s (population 36,495) assures me that the labouring classes are, on the whole, industrious, cheerful, and contented.’ The Inspector for St. Andrew’s writes ¢ that the labouring popu- lation of the several districts in his parish are industrious and thriving.” The late Inspector of Westmoreland (population 40,823) also bore testimony as to the peasantry of that parish F 66 THE LOST CONTINENT. being in comfortable circumstances, owning lands, and being industrious.” Turning to the Leeward Islands, we find the following character of the negro by Sir B. C. C. Pine: — ¢ As this appeal is made chiefly in behalf of the Negro and coloured race, it may not, sir, be out of place for me to make a {few remarks upon that race, more especially as I have seen with regret that their character has of late been misrepresented in England. In giving you my humble opinion of this people, I am also giving that of the Bishop. His Lordship is himself a West Indian. I have been for ten years Lieutenant-Governor and Governor in the West Indies, after having previously lived among the race in Africa, If, therefore, our opinion of the race is erroneous, it is for want of judgment that we err, not for want of experience. We are both of one mind regarding the race as we have seen them. We are not their blind advocates ; we are fully sensible of their faults; some of these faults being seemingly inherent in their race; but far more being the bitter results of that accursed institution from which they have been liberated hardly more than a quarter of a century. With all these faults we have recognised in the race qualities entitling them to the love of their fellow-men. They have a singular respect for justice; deal justly with a negro and no severity will be mur- mured at. They have an intense respect for authority if exercised even with moderate fairness, and they are, on the whole, the most easily governed people that I have ever met with. Their kindness of heart and their good humour even their enemies will SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 67 admit. They are accused of being idle, but it is only wonderful to me, considering the evil effects of slavery, and especially the stigma that it has cast on honest labour, that they are as indus- trious as they are.” Whilst referring to this subject it seems impossible to resist the temptation to quote the following passage from the second volume of the Last Journals of Dr. Livingstone :— “The emancipation of our West India slaves was the work of but a small number of the people of England, the philan- thropists and all the more advanced thinkers of the age. Nu- merically they were a very small minority of the population, and powerful only from the superior abilities of the leading men, and from having the right, the true, and just, on their side. Of the rest of the population an immense number were the indifferent, who had no sympathies to spare for any beyond their own fire- side circles. “In the course of time sensation writers came up on the surface of society, and, by way of originality, they condemned almost every measure and person of the past. «¢« Emancipation was a mistake.” And these fast writers drew along with them a large body who would fain be slave-holders themselves. We must never lose sight of the fact that though the majority, perhaps, are on the side of freedom, large numbers of Englishmen are not slave-holders only because the law forbids the practice. In this proclivity we see a great part of the reason of the frantic sympathy of the thousands with the rebels in the great Black War in America. The would-be slave-holders Br 2 68 THE LOST CONTINENT. showed their leanings unmistakably, in reference to the Jamaica outbreak, and many a would-be Colonel Hobbs, in lack of revolvers, dipped his pen in gall, and railed against all niggers who could not be made slaves. We wonder what they thought of their hero, when informed that for very shame at what he had done and written, he had rushed unbidden out of the world!” As to the Southern States of America it seems strange that Captain Townshend should not be aware that the produce of those States now is often equal, sometimes greater, than it was in the days of slavery.* To the honour of the masses in the manufacturing districts in Lancashire, it should be remembered that, when they were famine-stricken, owing to the want of cotton caused by the American Civil War, all * On craint que Pesclave ne veuille plus travailler, et cette inquiétude est assez naturelle, puisqu'on a tout fait pour lui rendre le travail odicux. Cependant 'exemple des colonies anglaises, francaises, hollan- daises, prouve la parfaite vérité de ce mot du Marquis de Sligo, gouver- neur de la Jamaique au moment de '’émancipation, en 1838 : “ toutes les fois que les propriétaires weulent que la chose aille bien, elle va bien) L’exemple des Etats-Unis du sud, ott déja, le travail libre arrive presque a fournir autant de coton que le travail servile en produisait avant la guerre, est plus significatif encore. Une meilleure distribution du travail, lintroduction des machines, la concentration des usines, une surveillance plus exacte, surtout un travail plus intelligent et plus ¢nergique, parce quil est stimulé par Iintérét personnel, permettent de tirer de cent hommes libres des resultats bien supérieurs i ceux que produisent deux cents esclaves.—L’ Espagne et I Esclavage, M. Cochin, Membre de I Institut. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 69 attempts to induce them to support the Southern sympa- thisers were unsuccessful. They attended meetings called by the pro-slavery party in great numbers, and quietly outvoted them. One thing is perfectly clear—there is a duty for Eng- land to perform on behalf of the remnant of slaves now living in Cuba. Lord Palmerston repeatedly asserted the right of Great Britain to claim the liberation of all the slaves introduced into Cuba in violation of the treaties. Since his time all our Foreign Secretaries, including the present Earl of Derby, to whom thanks are due for his enlightened interest in the cause, have held that Great ~ Britain has this right. Lord Palmerston, in his evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, said, ‘I believe there was a fixed sum paid to the Government of Cuba for each negro im- ported; and that, besides that, bribes were given to the whole of the officers of customs and police, in order to induce them to wink at what was doing. The illegality stands on more than one ground. There is a treaty which binds the Spanish Crown to prevent the importation of negroes; and there is a law of Ferdinand VI1I., by which it is illegal to import slaves into any Spanish colony, and by which, moreover, any slave imported in violation of that law is, ipso facto, entitled to his freedom.” 70 THE LOST CONTINENT. CHAPTER VII. Civil War in Cuba—The Spanish Government of the Island—The two great parties— The Revolution in Spain, 1868 —Spccial Laws —Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico—Course of the late British Cabinet. SpAIN has always ruled Cuba on principles similar to those by which she governed, and through which she lost all her extensive possessions in South America—not for the good of the colonists, but for the profit of the Government of Spain, its retainers and dependents. Perhaps no better representation could be given of the relations between Spain and Cuba than the substance of some ironical sentences from Franklin, quoted by M. Laboulaye, in his able preface to Valiente’s work on Cuba :(— “If you desire that a separation may be always possible, govern your colonies by laws of your own making ; interfere with their commerce; tax them at your pleasure for your own profit ; use their revenues which cost you nothing ; give despotic power to the general who rules in your name, and make him free from Colonial control. If the colonies complain, don’t listen to them ; accuse -them of high treason and rebellion; say that all their complaints are the inventions of demagogues; and if they can be SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 7 . caught all will go well. Hang some of them—the blood of the martyrs works miracles. Follow this course, and you will infallibly arrive at the consummation of your desires—you will be delivered from your colonies.” THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA, WHAT IS IT? The powers of the Captain-General are unlimited, and at all times equal to those of a General in a time of siege.* There are two great parties in Cuba—the Spanish party is mainly composed of the old slave traders, some of them large proprietors of both estates and slaves, together with a host of placemen from Spain of every conceivable kind, from the Captain-General downwards. The Cuban party is mainly composed of free Creoles, many of whom have been large owners of slaves and estates, and very wealthy. * Les pouvoirs des capitaines-généraux y sont définis en termes auxquels on ne reprochera pas de manquer de clarté. Le roi notre scigneur, y est-il dit, afin de conserver dans la précieuse ile de Cuba sa légitime et souveraine autorité et la tranquillité publique, vous accorde toute la plénitude des pouvoirs que les lois militaires conferent aux gouverneurs des places assiégées. Par conséquent, sa majesté le roi vous accorde I'autori- sation la plus étendue ct la plus illimitée, non-seulement pour exiler de, Iile toute personne, quels que soient son rang, sa classe ou sa condition dont la présence pourrait vous inspirer des soucis. . . . . maisaussi pour suspendre I'exéeution des ordres et ordonnances expédiés sur les diverses branches de I'administration publique.”—M. Cochin. 72 THE LOST CONTINENT. It has long been the custom of the latter class to send their sons to be educated in Paris, London, and New York, where they have become acquainted with their rights as men, and have imbibed desires for the liberty in their own country which they have witnessed abroad. This numerous and wealthy party had winced under the galling yoke of Spain long before the revolution broke out in 1868. Upon that occasion the Provisional Government in Madrid declared that a general reform should take place, and that the colonists should enjoy the same privileges as the inhabitants of Spain. In a very short time, however, the telegraph informed them that instead of this equality of rights, special laws were to be adopted for the colonies. The Cuban Liberals became alarmed. They knew what special legislation meant, for the same thing had been promised to them in 1837 and 1845. In unsheathing the sword they made a great mistake; their defence is, “If ever people were justified in appealing to arms we were.” Who, except those who believe all war to be wrong, shall answer the plea? But whatever were the causes in which the war originated, the struggle is now one between freedom and slavery. Very soon after the commencement of hostilities, the Cuban party set all their slaves at liberty—a course not surprising when it is borne in mind that, so far back as the year 1840, a strong SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 73 desire existed in many of the free Cubans to see an end put to slavery and the slave-trade. Mr. Turnbull, the British Commissioner in Cuba at that time, bore strong testimony on this subject, and stated that whilst the Spanish were determined at all hazards to continue the slave-trade, the native Cubans were strongly against it. It was this strong desire among the Cubans to see slavery abolished that drew from M. Olozaga, in Paris, in 1867, the statement that “in every country that had declared emancipation, the movement came from without, and that abolition was forced upon the planters. To-day the colonies and the people of Spain = desired emancipation, but the central Government was opposed to it.” The war has already existed six years, during which long period countless atrocities have been committed on both sides, It can scarcely be doubied but that more than a hundred thousand lives have already been sacrificed. The conclusion of the war, and the abolition of slavery, will doubtless take place at the same time. In Madrid this opinion increasingly prevails. A considerable number of eminent men, of various parties, have declared that to bring the war to an end slavery must necessarily be abolished. When Senor Olozaga stated in Paris that the people of Spain were opposed to the longer existence of negro slavery, 74 THE LOST CONTINENT. neither the press nor the Spanish people could speak; but immediately after the Revolution in 1868, public meetings, calling for the entire abolition of slavery, were held in Madrid, and in all the large and many of the smaller towns in Spain. Knowing that a large and opulent party in Cuba, and that the whole people of Spain, were anxious for the abolition of slavery, it could scarcely be unreasonable to expect that the late British Cabinet would have availed themselves of the circumstances, and have manifested more interest in the great movement for its realisation. But looking at all that has taken place since the lamented death of Earl Clarendon, little satisfaction can be taken in this direction. The French Government has done some- thing in aid of the cause; the American Government has done much more, and has rendered to it the most important service. It might surely have been expected that the English Government would have shown the deepest interest in the movement,—insomuch as she has in her treaties bases for action not possessed by any other Power. The slaves, by virtue of the treaties, are, in a certain sense, her wards, and the honour of the British nation is involved in their lot. Since the revolution in Spain in 1868, several occasions have presented, when Great Britain might have been of SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 75 essential service to humanity. One of these occasions is of a character too striking to be overlooked. When—on the resignation of King Amadeus—the Republicans came into power, they declared their intention to abolish slavery both in Porto Rico and Cuba. The policy of the Republic, as declared by Senor Castelar, was as follows :— “ First—The immediate abolition of slavery. ¢ Secondly—Antonomy of the Islands of Porto Rico and Cuba, which shall have a parliamentary assembly of their own, their own administration, their own government, and a federal tie to unite them with Spain, as Canada is united with England, in order that we may found the liberty of those States, and at the same time conserve the national integrity. I desire that the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall be our sisters, and I do not desire that they shall be transatlantic Polands.” This declaration was received with satisfaction in America, and Mr. Fish, the Foreign Secretary, assured the Spanish Government that it would have ¢‘ the hearty co-operation and support of the Government of the United States.” Bills for the abolition of slavery were prepared; that for Porto Rico was carried through the Cortes, and passed into law ; but the opposition became so powerful, that the idea of carrying the bill for the abolition of slavery in Cuba had to be deferred. 76 THE LOST CONTINENT. This would probably not have been the case had the Government of Castelar been acknowledged by the British Cabinet. Up to this time the Times stated that the young Republic had made no mistake. But, although it was bent on the abolition of slavery and the extinction of a war, the British Cabinet could not see its way to acknowledge it. Even the measure for Porto Rico could not have been carried but for the support of the American Government and its indefatigable representive in Madrid, General Sickles. The abolitionists in Madrid state that, during all this time, the cause received no aid or sympathy from the British Government or its Ambassador. Seeing that the people of Spain are so unanimously in favour of abolition, it may seem extraordinary that any powerful opposition should be possible; but there are very opulent men in Spain whose fortunes have been made in the slave-trade, and others who represent the Spanish party in Cuba. These form a Junta, which has its head-quarters in Madrid, and is supplied with enormous resources, which are freely used in corrupting placemen and the press. It is well known that on one occasion it received the large amount of £35,000 in a single remittance. Its resources far exceed those of the West India Com- mittee in the days of British slavery, and are used in a much SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 77 more unscrupulous manner. It is well known that Senor Castelar and his colleagues took the reins of Government without shedding blood, and with the unanimous vote of the Cortes ; that they were bent upon bringing the war in Cuba to an end by the abolition of slavery. It has been remarked that when the late Emperor of France extinguished a Legislative Assembly by violence, and stepped to the throne in blood, the British minister of the day gave the most prompt and unhesitating support—it is said, before the colour of the blood was out of the gutters of the Boulevards. But the late British Cabinet could not see its way to acknowledge the Government of Castelar, though that Government promised both the abolition of slavery and the extinction of a war. The course pursued by England in this affair, after a careful survey of all that her diplomatists have advanced in defence of it, leaves the painful impression that, to a preference for one form of government over another, the interests of humanity have been sacrificed. It is not encouraging to observe that the Government of the young King, Alfonso XII., has appointed General Valmuseda Governor of Cuba, seeing that, when he was Captain-General of the Island a few years ago, he issued an edict which ought not to have been forgotten. A large number of time-expired coolies were waiting in Havannah for a vessel to take them to China, when 4o0 - 78 THE LOST CONTINENT. were seized by his Government and sold to planters for eight years more. It was in reference to this act that the United States Secretary, Hamilton Fish, thus alluded, in a despatch to General Sickles—* If it be true (and it is true), it is impossible for the Governments of any civilised countries to be indifferent to so atrocious a proceeding.” Is not the time come when the British Government can no longer, consistently with her honour, remain indifferent to the state of Cuba? In moral efforts for the sake of our common humanity she would have the friendly aid, not only of the United States, France, Germany, and Spain, but the sympathy and approval of the whole civi- lized world. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 79 CHAPTER 13. The Zanzibar Treaty—Legal difficulties as to its provisions—New Routes by Land for the Slave-trade—Condition of the African People where not demoralised by the Slave-trader. ONE important result of the Treaty so ably negociated by Sir Bartle Frere with the Sultan of Zanzibar, was that England got rid of the former treaties, which, whatever might be the intention of the contracting parties, committed Great Britain to a compromise with slave-trading for which she has been justly censured by many enlightened men. Since the ratification of the new treaty, the Sultan has done honour to himself by his exertions faithfully to carry out its various stipulations. Unhappily there has arisen a very serious complica- tion about this treaty, for which we do not hear that the Sultan of Zanzibar is in any way to blame. There has sprung up a conflict of opinion among the English Crown lawyers; some of them hold that only such dhows as have slaves on board for sale can be seized by Her Majesty’s cruizers. The commander of a dhow laden with slaves has nothing to do but to assert that the slaves are not for sale, 8o THE LOST CONTINENT. and he must be allowed to pass with his cargo of slaves without molestation. The commanders of the cruizers are powerless in such cases, as the onus proband: lies with them. This is so grave a point that no delay ought to take place in effectually clearing up the matter. Our consular agents and officers, and all who have the serious responsibility of carrying the provisions of the treaty into execution, ought not to be left in any difficulty as to the law of the case. But the treaty does not reach the land-traffic, which has now been substituted for the sea route. In illustration of this, it is found that regular land routes have been organised along which thousands of slaves are sent northward to be shipped at Pemba or Lamoo, for the Eivptian, Turkish, and Persian markets. According to Vice-Consul Elton, 4,096 slaves passed between Dar-es-Salam and Kilwa Kivinga in the course of about one month. Again Captain Elton writes, in January, 1874 :— “Whilst lying ill under a shed at Kikunia, on the 30th, a caravan of 400 slaves passed through the village; and on the next day a far larger one (we counted 1,000 and then stopped) of some 1,100 filed past within sight of my bed, in long chain gangs, heavily laden with provisions for the road. The leader of the latter, one Mamji Hadji, conceived it his duty to call on me, 5 2 SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 81 accompanied by about eight of his men armed with muskets. He was very communicative, said ¢ he had been away two years; did not know exactly how many slaves he had, more than 1,000 certainly; was obliged to march slowly, as some had been a year and a-half in the gangs, had taken seven days from Kilwa ; thought it a good thing the sea route was closed, as he saved duty, and the land journey was cheaper.” The continuance of the slave-trade is also alluded to by Colonel Cameron, in a letter from another district. Kawele Ujiji, May 1874, he says: — “ Now for a little slaving news. It is still in force, as you will see by my journal; but, perhaps, I may here give you a little intelligence that may be novel and startling. Some of the white merchants, according to my Arab informant, buy slaves. (He did not see any English, but he heard of English and English men-of-war). There are Spanish and Portuguese houses on the Congo, and they no doubt do a little slaving business still. This ought to be looked to.” Among the many impediments to the abolition of the slave-trade, and to united efforts on behalf of Africa, must be ranked the mistaken impression of many people, that the African race is so naturally bad that it cannot be improved and elevated. This error must mainly be attributed to the demoralizing effects of the slave-trade, which has formed an evil ring around that great continent from which has spread G 82 THE LOST CONTINENT. inwards all the vices of humanity in its most debased condition. In the few parts of Africa where the slave-trade has not yet reached, tribes are to be found living in order and happi- ness—cultivating their lands, and peacefully enjoying every- thing their physical wants require, of which abundant evidence has been brought to light, from the days of Mungo Park to the present time. To this Dr. Livingstone occa- sionally bears ample testimony. THE NEGRO WHERE THE SLAVE-TRADE HAS NEVER BEEN. «Fortunately I was in a country now, after leaving the shores of the Nassau, where the feet of the slave-trader had not trod. It was a new and virgin land; and of course, as I have always found it, in such cases the natives were really good and hospi- table, and for very small portions of cloth my baggage was conveyed from village to village by them. “In many other ways the traveller, in his extremity, was kindly treated by the undefiled and unspoilt natives. “When Syde and Dugumbé come, I hope to get men and a canoe to finish my work among those who have not been abused by Ujijians, and still retain their natural kindness of disposition; none of the people are ferocious without cause. . . . . The education of the world is a terrible one, and it has come down with relentless rigour on Africa from the most remote times! What the African will become after this awfully hard lesson is learned, is among the future developments of Providence. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 83 When He, who is higher than the highest, accomplishes His purposes, this will be a wonderful country, and again something like what it was of old, when Terah and Tirhaka flourished and were great. ““Nsama’s people are particularly handsome. Many of the men have as beautiful heads as one could find in an assembly of Europeans. All have very fine forms, with small hands and feet. None of the West Coast ugliness, from which most of our ideas of the negroes are derived, is here to be seen. No prog- nathous jaws nor lark heels offended the sight. My observation deepened the impression, first obtained from the remarks of Winwood Reade, that the typical negro is seen in the ancient Egyptian, and not in the ungainly forms which grow up in the unhealthy swamps of the West Coast. Indeed, it is probable that this upland forest region is the true home of the negro. The women excited the admiration of the Arabs. They have fine, small, well-formed features.” “The whole of my experience in Central Africa says that the negroes not yet spoilt by contact with the slave-trade are distin- guished for friendliness and good sense. In one point they are remarkable—they are honest.” In one of his letters Dr. Livingstone says :— “I was so frequently asked, when in England, ¢ Would these Africans work for one?’ + Yes, if you could pay them. This answer produced such a palpable lengthening of visage, that I suspected my questioner had been speculating on getting them to work for nothing; in fact, to be slave owners.” Colonel Cameron, in a published letter, has also given his G 2 84 THE LCST CONTINENT. experience of the African natives who have not been made slaves, in the following words :— ___—1 have lost,” says he, *“all idea of colour being a sign of inferiority. Many of the people I have seen and talked to are very intelligent, and fully recognise the value of having more trade, and the tales of the lack of industry and want of purpose, are only true of slaves, and the degraded predatory tribes. To see the enormous fields which are cultivated entirely with the hoe, and to say that these people lack purpose, is impossible. Those who say that all the people here are drunkards, utter a scandal. The means of getting drunk here are plenty enough; but the only people I see drunk here are my own pagazi and askari, and the slaves and servants of the Arabs, with very few exceptions. Not near so many people are drunkards here as in England, in pro- portion to the numbers. Of course, living as they do without any religion or hopes of a future life, with few wants and no resources, they are low in the scale of civilization, but they are not rude or brawling to strangers. I have never had the slightest incivility offered to me. I take my stand always as being to the full as big a man as any chief I meet, but am always careful to be most punctiliously civil to them. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 85 CHAPTER X. Dr. Livingstone’s last Journals—Christian regard for Human Life —Slave-trade as seen in his latter years. IT is a touching thing to see the last journals of a man who has held a large place in the minds of his fellow-coun- trymen, and in the estimation of the world, through a long course of years—especially is it so with respect to one who has passed from the world under such peculiar circum- stances. Dr. Livingstone has laid open to the light some of the darkest portions of the world; and before this light the habitations of cruelty will not be allowed much longer to remain. | He has not been permitted to see the fruit of his labours; but his labours will remain. His track in Africa is not traced in blood, but in a light that will never be obliterated. In his practice he held human life to be sacred. Carrying with him wherever he went the influence of true goodness, he gained over the savage, made even more savage by the slave-trade. The white man sho follows him is safe; though the life of the white man who follows the Queensland labour trafficker is 86 THE LOST CONTINENT. in constant jeopardy. Dr. Livingstone never pointed a weapon against his fellow-man, and even records a sense of humilia- tion after using a stick to correct a servant. His sufferings, self-sacrifice, and life-long devotion to the cause of the oppressed, has left a legacy to the world—the duty to bring slavery and the slave-trade to an end in the shortest prac- ticable time. It was no light task to undertake the editorship of the last journals of such a man, written as they were under such peculiar circumstances. It is well that the work was under- taken by his friend and colleague, the “Rev.” Horace Waller, to whom the thanks of the public are due for the form in which the volumes have been presented. The short and judicious notes show how careful the editor has been to keep himself in the background, in order the more effectually to present Dr. Livingstone to the public. The following extracts, taken promiscuously, will show a little of what Dr. Livingstone met with in his latter years in reference to THE SLAVE-TRADE. “ When endeavouring to give some account of the slave-trade of East Africa, it was necessary to keep far within the truth, in order not to be thought guilty of exaggeration; but, in sober seriousness, the subject does not admit of exaggeration. To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility. The sights I have SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 8&7 seem, though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous that I always try to drive them from memory. In the case of most disagreeable recollections I can succeed, in time, in con- signing them to oblivion; but the slaving scenes ‘come back unbidden, and make me start up at dead of night horrified by their vividness.” “No words can convey an adequate idea of the scene o wide-spread desolation which the once pleasant Shire Valley now presented. Instead of smiling villages and crowds of people coming with things for sale, scarcely a scul was to be seen. . . . . Large masses of the people had fled down to the Shire, only anxious to get the river between them and their enemies. Most of the food had been left behind, and famine and starvation had cut off so many that the remainder were too few to bury the dead. The corpses we saw floating down the river were only a remnant of those that had perished, whom their friends, from weakness, could not bury, nor over-gorged crocodiles devour. ..: tv. vie “We were informed by Mr. Waller of the dreadful blight which had befallen the once smiling Shire Valley. His words, though strong, failed to impress us with the reality. In fact, they were received, as some may accept our own, as tinged with exaggeration; but when our eyes beheld the last mere driblets of this cup of woe, we for the first time felt that the enormous wrongs inflicted on our fellow-men by slaving are beyond exaggeration. . . . . The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a well-peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the conviction upon us, that the destruction of human life in the middle passage, however great, 88 THE LOST CONTINENT. constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and made us feel that unless the slave-trade—that monster iniquity, which has so long brooded over Africa—is put down, lawful commerce cannot be established. “We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead. The people of the country explained that she had been unable to keep up with the other slaves in a gang, and her master had determined that she should not become the property of anyone else if she recovered after resting for a time. I may mention here that we saw others tied up in a similar manner, and one lying in the path shot or stabbed, for she was in a pool of blood. The explanation we got invariably was that the Arab who owned these victims was enraged at losing his money by the slaves becoming unable to march, and vented his spleen by murdering them. “ To-day we came upon a man dead from starvation, as he was very thin. One of our men wandered and found a number of slaves with slave-sticks on, abandoned by their master from want of food; they were too weak to be able to speak or say where they had come from—some were quite young. . . ¢] saw another person bound to a tree and dead—a sad sight to see, whoever was the perpetrator. So many slave-sticks lie along our path, that I suspect the people hereabout make a practice of liberating what slaves they can find abandoned on the march to sell them again.” SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 89 CHAPTER XI. Remarks on Christian Missions—Dr. Livingstone—Colonel Cameron— New ‘and extensive steam communication with Zanzibar, ports in Eastern Africa—Projected Ship Canal, North Western Africa. NoTHING can be more necessary to Africa than Christian Missions. Whether those which have been established during the past thirty years have been conducted on the soundest principles it is not necessary here to inquire. The great purpose of Christianity is not only to prepare man for a future state but to elevate and bless him in the present life. Those missions which have not been paralysed or laid waste by slavery have effected in particular localities a very large amount of good. But many noble efforts in various parts of Africa, which promised well for a time, have been destroyed by the slave-trade. They have not failed for want of support from England and the various other countries from which they have emanated, neither have they failed from defects of character in the missionaries, the energy, devoted- ness, and self-sacrifice of whom is beyond all praise. Butitis certain that where these missions have wastedaway, languished and died, it has been in consequence of the slave-trade. QO THE LOST CONTINENT. There is at the present moment a great amount of Christian zeal turned in the direction of Africa. Large amounts of money have been freely offered for the establishment of new Missions. All this is very encouraging, but it is impossible not to feel some apprehension that, unless slavery is abolished in the East, the slave-trade may now, as formerly, lay waste the projected missions, and disappoint the expectations of their promoters. The following remarks on the subject of missions, by Dr. Livingstone and Colonel Cameron, are worthy of note. DR. LIVINGSTONE ON MISSIONS IN THE INTERIOR. “I would say to missionaries, ¢ Come on, brethren, to the real heathen. You have no idea how brave you are till you ’ try.’ Leaving the coast tribes, and devoting yourselves heartily to the savages, as they are called, you will find, with some drawbacks and wickedness, a very great deal to admire and love. Many statements made about them require confir- mation. You will never see women selling their infants, the Arabs never did, nor have I. An assertion of the kind was made by mistake.” ‘“ Goodness or unselfishness impresses their minds more than any kind of skill or power. They say, ‘You have dif- ferent hearts from ours; all black men’s hearts are bad, but SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 91 yours are good.” The prayer to Jesus for a new heart and right spirit at once commends itself as appropriate.” ‘“ But no one expects any benevolent efforts from those who cavil and carp at efforts made by Governments and peoples to heal the enormous open sore of the world. Some profess that they would rather give ‘their mite’ for the degraded of our own countrymen than to ‘niggers!’ Verily it is ‘a mite,” and they most often forget, and make a gift of it to themselves. It is almost an axiom that those who do most for the heathen abroad are most liberal for the heathen at home. It is to this class we turn with hope.” CoLoNEL CAMERON ON MISSIONS. “ If missions are to be established they should be in- dustrial ones; all the clergy should be thorough gentlemen, but there should be subordinates who could instruct the natives—smiths, carpenters, agriculturists, &c. ‘The utmost care and discrimination should be exercised in selecting these. It is no use only teaching the natives to read and write ; they don’t teach or raise others, and are in a measure unfitted for a return to their own homes. If they knew trades they would teach them to others, and having the means of obtain- ing a livelihood and living in superior comfort to their neigh- bours, would tend to raise the latter, and become each in his 92 THE LOST CONTINENT. own home a centre of dawning Christianity and civilisation. This is where our Zanzibar mission errs : the boys are taught to read and write and made gentlemen of; when they leave the mission, at the age of twenty or thereabouts, they have no means of obtaining a livelihood, and fall into the hands of the Arabs, and soon forget their Christianity and become nominally Mohammedans, virtually nothing. ‘The French mission at Bagamoyo is a good commencement in this way, but might be improved upon. I do not mean that the boys should not be taught to read and write; but do this, and not leave the other undone.” Although the importance of Christian Missions for Africa cannot be over-rated, there are other agencies at work which, if slavery be abolished, must prove of immense benefit both to Africa and Europe. Through the enterprise and liberality of the British Steam Navigation Company and their public-spirited Chairman, Mr. Mackinnon, aided by a very moderate subsidy from the Governments of England, France and Portugal, frequent steam communication is now established with Zanzibar, the various ports and places on the East Coast of Africa, Mada- gascar, and the several other islands in those seas. This wise and beneficial scheme has been mainly brought about by the indefatigable exertions of James Long, Esq. This gentleman has also rendered essential service by SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 93 bringing the whole subject of our commercial arrangements with Eastern Africa before nearly all the Chambers of Com- merce in the large towns in England. We must not, however, overlook the fact that the slave- trade is so enormously profitable that it destroys lawful com- merce, and that increased facilities for communication may be turned to account by the slave-traders. In past times it has on several occasions happened that the best meant schemes have done more for the encourage- ment of the slave-trade than they have done for lawful com- merce. We must not shut our eyes to the extreme probability that the same result will attend these new efforts if slavery be not abolished. Even the steamers which ply in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea frequently carry slaves, and in other ways are made to foster the slave-trade. Steam and commerce, however, are invaluable as auxi- liaries, but they are not the remedy for the slave-trade, and, alone they never will abolish it. The African Institution tried to effect the great object by the promotion of commerce forty years ago;—the Great Civilisation Society of 1840, supported by the most eminent men in the country, with a princely revenue and the aid of steam, altogether failed in its spirited and well-meant efforts. Since that time several other considerable efforts have been made which have only been attended with similar results. 04 THE LOST CONTINENT. An interesting scheme has recently been broached, which, if found practicable and carried out, must prove of immense benefit to the central portions of Northern Africa. The great desert of Sahara is one vast depression, upwards of 600 miles in length, and from the statements of Dr. Barth, and other _ eminent travellers, it is supposed to be about 140 feet below the level of the Atlantic. To submerge this, and open water communication with the fertile lands, and abundant population of the interior, it is said to be only necessary to cut through a ali tract of land. Some information on this project will be found in the Appendix (D). Io Rd a pais ac Lc SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 95 CHAPTER XII. Introduction of British Indian Coolies into Surinam. The Dutch in Java—Dutch war of aggression in Acheen. IT had in latter times been the settled practice of the English Government not to allow any further extension of the system of Coolie immigration from British India into the possessions of Foreign Powers, especially so with regard to places where Aly has existed. But this excellent policy has been departed from by the late Government, which has licensed the traffic to Surinam. The reasons for this change have not been made public, but it is supposed to have been done at the instance of those British slave-owners in Dutch Guiana who, in 1852, memorialised the Netherlands Government against the project of abolishing slavery. It was proposed by the Dutch Government, about that time, to make all children born after the passing of the Act free. But the memorialists, among whom were an English Baronet and two ladies, claimed compensation, not merely for slaves then living, but also for the yet unborn children of slave-mothers. On this occasion the Earl of 96 THE LOST CONTINENT. Malmesbury addressed the following words to the British Ambassador at the Hague :— “You will say, first, that Her Majesty’s Government have no sympathy with British subjects who own slaves in foreign countries; and, secondly, that they think the emancipation of slaves is of much more importance to the welfare of the human race than the interests of any British subjects who may consider they are entitled to compensation for losses sustained in consequence of the emancipation of slaves in foreign countries.”* A Consul has been appointed who is supposed to protect these British Indian Coolies, but anything approaching to effectual protection in Surinam, where the estates are widely separated, both on the mainland and adjacent islands, is a simple impossibility. THE DurcH IN Java. This departure of the late Cabinet from a settled National Policy is the more extraordinary in view of the fact that the oppressive rule of the Dutch over the labouring class in her dependencies had been recently exposed in several public journals. Their grinding oppressions in Java had been made the subject of very severe but just comment. * By the 6 & 7 Victoria, slave-holding by British subjects in foreign countries is made a penal offence. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 97 Under a species of serfdom called ‘ heerendienst” the natives of Java are made to bear the expense of a standing army of about 40,000 men, and all Colonial expenses, and to yield to Holland a clear profit of more than two millions sterling annually. It is well known that, in addition to the greater part of Sumatra, the Moluccas, and other islands, and a vast slice of Borneo, Holland virtually possesses the whole of the large island of Java, which, though a Christian Government, she has rendered a scandal to the civilised world. The traveller in Holland admires the beautiful villas, bright gardens, and surrounding avenues of the ¢ Java quarter” at The Hague, but witnesses in that fair sight nothing of the misery and debasement in far-off lands which have been made mainly to contribute to that splendour. For into the Dutch coffers the rich tribute of £3,000,000 flows annually from Java, being so much clear profit over and above all the cost of maintaining the Colonial Government and arma- ments. Further confirmation of the statements made in the Morn- ing Post and other papers is abundantly afforded in a recent work which devotes several chapters to Java, viz.:—“A Voyage Round the World,” by the Marquis de Beauvoir (London: Murray, 1870). After describing his tour through the island, and the courtesy with which he was treated by the H 98 THE LOST CONTINENT. authorities, he remarks—‘ It went to my heart never to see a man stand up before me, but thousands of creatures crouch- ing down in a row.” : ‘“ As to the religious condition of this magnificent island of 15,000,000 people, he says there is ‘scarcely a temple of any kind to show that there is a thought of God in this country which He has so richly endowed.” And after describ- ing the wonderful ruins of the ancient temples at Mendoet, Boro-Bondor, and Tjandji-Seou, the Marquis contrasts with the past the spiritlessness of the present age in Java, when even ‘art is completely dead.’ He also affirms that the island was more populous 1,000 years ago than now. The same writer enters at great detail into the particulars of the Dutch exactions in Java, quoting from official figures and returns. These show that in the 33 years, from 1833 to 1866, ‘the net profit of Java to Holland was £72,000,000, or more than £2,000,000 per annum throughout. This clear revenue is additional to the large amount required for meeting the colo- nial expenditure, and for the support of a Dutch army of 30,000 men (of whom 11,000 are Europeans). Nor does it include the ‘commissions’ on all the Government crops enjoyed by the officials generally, both native and Dutch. The Marquis mentions also that the natives are compelled to sell two-thirds of their sugar crops to the Dutch Govern- ment at ros. 3d. per picul (132lb.), which quantity sells in SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 99 Holland at six times the amount (61s. the picul). It is but fair to explain that this crop is aided by a loan from Govern- ment. But the coffee crop must also be sold to the Dutch at one-third its marketable value.” Since the foregoing was written the Dutch Government has passed a law providing that payments in money will in future be received instead of payments in sugar. This will be an advantage to the merchant, but, so far as is known, no change has been made in the condition of the native popula- tion. They are still ruled over by foreign masters for the exclusive gain of a foreign Government, the people of which make the high profession of the Protestant reformed religion. Holland has produced some excellent men, noted for their philanthropy—a deep responsibility rests upon them as members of the Community. Can they be induced to look at the abject condition of their fellow-subjects in Java, and take measures to roll away the reproach at present brought upon the Christian name? Tae Durce WAR IN ACHEEN. But still more to be deplored was the agreement made by the British Government with the Dutch, in 1842, inasmuch as it led to two wars, one of which is still going on. When the Sultan of Acheen was first attacked by the Dutch, H 2 I00 THE 1.0ST CONTINENT. he appealed to his old friends, the English, and claimed pro- tection under his Treaty with England of 1819. : The Treaty was not disputed by the British Government, but the Sultan was told in reply that he could not claim the protection that England was bound to afford to him, because England had subsequently * entered into a treaty with the Netherlands entirely inconsistent with it;” and, further, because England had not uninterruptedly observed the treaty. The war which has now been carried on by the Dutch Government against the Achinese in the north-western part of Sumatra is a war of aggression, into which it might almost be said the British Government had invited the Dutch to enter, for one of the clauses of the Convention between the English and Dutch which led to these wars runs thus :—*“ Her Britannic Majesty desists from all objections against the extension of the Netherland dominions in any part of the Island of Sumatra, and consequently from the reserve in that respect contained inthe Notes exchanged bythe Netherland and British Plenipotentiaries at the conclusion of the Treaty of 1824.” By the two wars—the consequence of a Convention negotiated in secret—the welfare of thousands and the honour of England have been compromised. It was to secret diplomacy that England was formerly committed to a compromise with slave-trading, by her old treaties with the Sultan of Zanzibar and the Imaum of Muscat. > 390 3 SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. I0I So long as the English people are satisfied to allow their Ministers to make treaties of this kind in secret, they will be liable to all the discredit and injury such transactions involve. The Achinese have claims on Great Britain which have not been honourably met; but, apart from this, and alto- gether apart from the merits of the case, it would be a kind and considerate act for the present Cabinet, in the interest of humanity, to use its influence with the Dutch Government in favour of the people of Acheen, who have now been engaged in defending their homes and their country for nearly two years against the cruel and barbarous aggressions of the Government of the Netherlands. 102 THE 1.OST CONTINENT. CHAPTER XIil, Queensland—The Labour Traffic—Condition of the Islanders on the Estates. : THE early history of Queensland, so far as the natives are concerned, like the history of the other Australian Colonies, is written in blood. Experience has, in several instances, shown that the natives make good shepherds and herdsmen; but the policy of those who have possessed themselves of extensive tracts of land has been to exterminate the original and rightful owners, and to import foreign labour. Hence a new species of slave-trade has sprung up. ; It was under the auspices of Sir G. Bowen that the introduction of South Sea Islanders, under labour contracts, into Queensland first took place. The illegality of the course was fully proved at the time, and the results brought deep discredit on the English name. To apply a remedy to the evils thus introduced, the Brisbane Parliament passed a Bill in 1868; but this Act, as was anticipated by many able men, did not put an end to the evils—kidnapping and murder continue to be as rife as before. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. I03 Public attention has been so much startled and absorbed with the atrocities committed in recruiting the Polynesian natives, that little attention has been paid to the question as to what is their actual state on the plantations in Queensland. Their condition has indeed been asserted to be everywhere good; in proof of which, reference is made to the fact that some of the islanders who had returned to their homes have gone a second time to Queensland. This at first sight looks well; but, to test its value as an indication of their gemeral condition, numbers ought to be given. What is the proportion of those who go a second time compared with those who never do so? In a country where the estates are widely separated, and seldom visited by strangers, it is difficult to obtain inde- pendent and trustworthy information. A late Governor of Queensland, a few years ago, made a sort of royal progress among some of the estates, and reported that he found everything right and the islanders happy. Of course he did! Could any other result have been anticipated ? Another traveller,* paying an unexpected visit about the “+ “Colonial Adventures and Experiences.” By a University Man. London : Bell & Daldy. 1871. 104 THE 10ST CONTINENT, or same time, gave the following account of what he saw :— “The coolies being thus captured or procured, let us see how they are treated, or rather let me relate what I know of their treatment in two places where I have seen the system at work. . . . Their diet, as far as it came under my observation and notice, consisted chiefly of pumpkins, damaged corn, and such corn cobs as they could pick up or secrete, a pint-pot full of rice twice a-week (rice being a food untasted by them in their own country), and, when a bullock was killed, they got the head, entrails, and other refuse. . . . I have compared them to slaves; they are worse off in many respects than if they were slaves. . . . After I had been on the plantation about a month, a cargo of coolies was brought into the port, and most of the (white) hands on the plantation received notice to leave in a week, some few being retained as overseers. . . . When the coolies were brought up to the plantation, I noticed that many of them had sores and deep cuts on their ankles; and I found, on inquiry, that some of them had been mutinous on the passage, and had been put in irons. Mutiny is a - rather curious word to use in the case of a man who resists oppression, but it belongs to the new vocabulary. They were permitted to spend the first two days in building a hut for themselves. . . . There were in all about seventy. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 105 As soon as their household arrangements were completed, they were told off in gangs and set to work under white overseers, who were made responsible for getting a certain amount of work daily out of them. .. . Surely, if slavery was suppressed in the interests of the negro, this infamous traffic ought also to be suppressed in the interests of these islanders, who are people nearer akin to us by race than the negro.” Near the towns where public influence is felt, the treat- ment of the islanders may be good; but the case is very different where their location is too remote to be either under the cognisance of the civil power or the influence of public opinion. Being under the bondage of contract, they are not free men, and therefore wholly unable to defend themselves against injustice and oppression. A temporary resident, in a district where many are em- ployed, writing about a year ago, remarked :— ““ Any person arriving on these plantations for the first time would be immediately shocked at the appearance of these Kanakas. I say that the Australian aborigines, in ' their primitive state, are less disgusting than these Kanakas. Did the Marquis of Normanby, when he visited two of these plantations, see the islanders as they usually go about the plantations, or were they compelled to put on their clothing on that momentous occasion? But from what I learned I 106 THE LOST CONTINENT. do not think that His Excellency took the best means, if any at all, of becoming acquainted with the usual routine on these plantations to enable him to form an opinion, much less to eulogise the system. I beg leave to say that riding through the district, and partaking of fi Roupltgliiies of -those favourable to the traffic, aid who took good care to make everything look pleasant, would hardly afford him an opportunity to judge. 1 doubt not that, were it known that any of the men could or_were likely to tell him how they came to the plan- tations, and were being treated, ample means soled be taken to prevent their doing so. I therefore assert that His Excellency could know nothing of the system, except from what he was told by those interested in this nefarious traffic. “I had the means of observing the manner these islanders are worked, and the treatment they receive on the plan- tations, and I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that this traffic savours far too much of slavery, and should no longer be permitted to go on. I will just mention a few facts, which cannot be denied, for public information. “ On these plantations the islanders are turned into the - cane-fields, or to such other place where they may be required, at seven o'clock in the morning, and kept at work until six p.m., one hour being allowed, from twelve to one, SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 107 for dinner. Each gang has an overseer, to see that they are not skulking work. Those engaged in the boiling-house are frequently at work until twelve o'clock at night, but generally up to ten o'clock p.m. I had a conversation with a sugar-boiler one day, about the admirable way in which these people went about their labour, and he informed me that, if they did not do so, he would soon make them. I asked him, ‘ How would you?’ ‘Why,’ he replied, ‘by giving them a few good cracks with a sugar-cane.” I believe this is by no means an unusual circumstance. These people are made, or rather compelled, to work when they may by sickness be unable to do so. The sole or the whole idea of the planters seems to be, to obtain as much labour as can possibly be got from these people during the term of engagement. Even on Sundays these men are compelled to work, by loading the punts with sugar and conveying the same to the place of shipping. “They are supposed to be impervious to sickness. If they complain of illness they are not believed, but it is thought to be idleness and an indisposition to labour. I shall mention a circumstance which was told me by one of themselves, who could speak English sufficiently well to be understood. It is this :—A man from the Island of Tanna, whilst working on one of these plantations, became ‘very bad,” and was confined to his bed. The manager, not 108 THE LOST CONTINENT. seeing him about as usual, inquired ; being informed of the poor wretch being ill, he went into the hut where he was lying, and, with a good-sized sugar-cane, actually thrashed the unfortunate man from the bed to the mill. Yet none of the many Kanakas who were present, and saw the ill-treat- ment their countryman received, made the slightest show of resentment. I saw one of these Polynesians with a bad wound on his thigh, which, upon inquiry, I found had been inflicted by a severe kick from the manager, with his heavy nailed boot, for some alleged skulking. “ Some may ask, Why have no complaints been made by these Kanakas as to their ill-treatment if they have any cause of complaint? To this I reply, that they have no means afforded them to complain. Is not almost every one of their masters a magistrate ? Is not the police magistrate of the district the frequent and welcome guest of their master ? If one of these men was to endeavour to find his way to the nearest Police Bench to complain, he would be immediately pursued, and brought up under the Masters’ and Servants’ Act. How are the majority of these people to obtain redress for any injury they may receive when they cannot make themselves understood, and no interpreters are provided by the Government which brings them to the colony? “The reason the public do not hear of the many abuses Joya Nh La RE ~ SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 109 meta which take place on the plantations of the Polynesian labourers is easily answered by the fact of there being no local and independent press to make these abuses known. There is only one newspaper, about eighty or one hundred miles from the plantations, but it dares not assume an independent position towards this traffic.” From such a state of things free labour and fair wages would have preserved the fine Colony of Queensland. II10 THE LOST CONTINENT. CHAPTER X71V. Coolies imported into the British West Indies during a period of T'wenty- nine years—The number returned to their own country—Their savings—Number now in the Colonies—The death-rate. Tre returns laid before the House of Commons of the immigrants and liberated Africans admitted into the West India Colonies between 1843 and 1872 show a total taken into British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, St. Vincent, and Grenada, amounting to 161,539. Of this number 46,038 are dead : a fearful rate of mortality in countries where the native population increases rapidly, The number who have returned to their own country is stated as 16,938; the average annual savings of each has been £1 2s. 6d. For this pitiful amount these people have worked hard for some of the best years of their lives. No wonder then that, in order to procure a supply of labour, the contract, the recruiter, or the kidnapper, are still a necessity. This forced labour system is costly in money and wasteful of life. It is an attempt to obtain labour that is cheap. But low-priced labour is not necessarily cheap; especially is this true if all the costs of the recruiting system are taken into account. The adoption of free labour fairly paid for would probably be quickly followed by a free and abundant immigration into the islands. The Friend of India, after a careful review of the whole working of the affair, has fitly termed it “the twin-sister of the slave-trade.” The arguments adduced for both are in many respects identical. It was maintained that, though the system might be one of forced labour for a time, the coolie was to be benefited and enriched. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. ITY The returns, extending over a period of twenty years, show how far this has been realised, But it was also confidently anticipated that our colonies would be peopled by it. The returns, however, show that, whilst the West India Islands have not been colonised, the countries from which the coolies have been drawn are being depopulated. In fact, the rate of mortality has been such as would depopulate the world at no very distant day. RETURNS OF IMMIGRANTS LAID BEFORE PARLIAMENT. “The Colonial Office, on the motion of Mr. Crum-Ewing, has laid upon the table of the House of Commons a return of the number of immigrants and liberated Africans admitted into British West Indian Colonies from 1843 to 1872 inclusive, and also the number who have returned to their own country, with the amount of their savings. It appears that twelve colonies have imported immigrants. The chief sources of supply have been from India, whence have come 146,663 persons ; Madeira, 34,364; Sierra Leone, 21,118; China, 16,222. Of the 31,336 individuals who have migrated from one colony to another, British Guiana alone has received 23,649. The entire number of hands imported from the sixteen specified localities is 263,833, giving an average of 9,097 per annum. Whatever may be the object in obtaining these returns, they suggest matters for grave consideration, and show that immigration has not been so remunerative to the labourers as they were led to expect, and that it has so far failed in colonising the dependencies of the British Crown. When in India the coolies were promised, in addition to money wages, house and land rent free; gratuitous medical and hospital attendance 3 £10 bounty on their return to their country, and other special advantages. Recruiters failed not to give the most glowing accounts of the places, where they were assured of happy days, light work, and large monetary results. That a few of the 146,663 coolies 112 THE 10ST CONTINENT, from India, favoured by exceptional circumstances, have done well, is cheerfully acknowledged ; but looking at the results, not from a planter’s point of view, who regards alone his crops and profits, but from the labourer’s point of view, who looks at the wages saved and benefits obtained after a ten years’ contract and industrial residence, we cannot pronounce them satisfactory. Some planters in Jamaica have lately requested the Governor, Sir John Peter Grant, to induce labourers from Malta to migrate to Jamaica. These people, however, are indisposed to go unless they can save at least threepence a day, or about £3 18s. per year—a sum far beyond what the coolies from India, in that colony, have saved. The immigration agents have, no doubt, given as favourable a report of amounts-earned as circumstances permitted. They have not only credited those who have returned to their country with cash, but also with the value of jewellery possessed. It should, however, be borne in mind that in very many instances a portion of the cash and jewellery belonged to deceased friends and relatives, the number of whom is very large. In not a few cases, also, the sums taken include moneys sent by coolies yet under contract to their friends and relatives in India, Hence considerable deductions have to be made from the amounts given as savings and property of those who return. But, taking none of these circumstances into account, what is the amount—having had house, land, medical attendance free, and bounty money—of the savings of those who have returned to India? In Trinidad the average is £2 3s. per annum; in British Guiana, £1 19s; Grenada, £1 6s.; St. Vincent, £1; Jamaica, 15s.; St. Lucia, 14s. 6d. When we know that many of these people have worked hard and industriously, that some of them have invested their little savings in, say, a cow or other animal, to add to their resources, and have been successful in this auxiliary resource, we can understand that on their return to India, their report will not be encouraging, and that it is difficult to get hands to go in search of fortunes in the West India Colonies. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. I13 But there is another view of the present system. From the return we see that, while comparatively few return to their own country, colonisation is not secured. Human life is wasted, and, unless kept up by constant supply from abroad, the imported coolies will die out, and the colony left as before. Take the returns of the following islands :— Number Number returned to Number Number of coolies their own yet in unaccounted imported. country. the colony. for. British Guiana... 93,230 8,982 55,248 28,9635 "Brinidad ...0 ... 47,342 4,542 28,425 11,910 Jotonien ... .... 16,471 3,194 9,000 4,267 Se. Vincent ... 1,026 34 1,485 407 Grenada... ,.. | 2:570 186 1,895 489 161,539 16,938 96,053 46,038 While, during the twenty-nine years covered by these returns, only one in nine has returned to his country, nearly one in four is unaccounted for, or, in other words, is dead. The birth- should, under a healthy state of things, have exceeded the death-rate, as is the case among the creole population. Here, however, instead of there being, during the twenty-nine years, a large, or any, increase in the Indian population, there is actually a decrease of nearly twenty-five per cent. of the imported coolies.”—.nti-Slavery Reporter. The plea frequently put forth that the Coolies are benefited by the system derives no support from these official returns— a careful examination of them plainly shows that, in the face of such a death-rate, the system cannot be maintained either on economical or moral grounds. IT THE LOST CONTINENT. CHAPTER XV. CONCLUDING REMARKS. IN referring to slavery in the Eastern Nations, allusion is sometimes made to the religious difficulty. This some people believe to be a great obstacle in the way of the extinction of slavery in the Mussulman Countries. Speak to an ordi- nary Englishman on the subject, he will look grave and talk about the Koran: an intelligent Mohammedan, however, will frankly tell you slavery is an evil institution which must be abolished. This is not surprising in view of the fact that the Koran strongly commends the virtue of giving liberty to slaves.”’* Although this supposed religious difficulty as an obstacle to abolition is unreal, it is a fact that Islamism has done much to extend slavery; but it should be remembered with humiliation that the professors of Christianity have done much in the same evil direction, and that they are not even now clear of reproach. The Sultan of Turkey, the Khedive, and several of the principal expounders of the Mohammedan religion, have at various times unequivocally condemned slavery. A number * See Appendix E. SI.AVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. I15 of the latter class have solemnly declared that ‘‘ selling male and female slaves is an abomination to the most noble faith,” and that they have the authority of Mahomet himself for stating ‘‘ that the worst of men is the seller of men.” In reference to the Declaration of the European Powers at Vienna and Verona, it has been suggested that, as the nations of Europe have all abandoned the slave-trade, the purpose has been accomplished—but the Declarations went much further than this; the respective Powers pledged themselves to unite in measures for the complete, definitive, and universal abolition of the slave-trade in Africa. On looking back to the time when these declarations were made, and to what passed during a period of some twenty years after, especially in reference to the treaties made with the Mohammedan Powers, it is impossible not to see that much more was done formerly than has been attempted of later years. It is true that a new treaty has been made by England with Zanzibar, but it required an agitation of many years to induce the British Government even to do that, and it was current in the House of Commons that the Government of the day granted the Committee of Inquiry, which resulted in the negociation of that Treaty, from some apprehension that the safety of the Administration was involved. Although the treaties with the Eastern Powers never were 12 116 THE LOST CONTINENT. faithfully observed by Turkey, Egypt, and Persia, thereisreason to believe that much more attention was paid to them for- merly than has been latterly the case. Those nations have read in the lines of our conduct of late that they are not so much expected to abstain from slave-trading, as from doing it openly. It is said, by those who ought to know, that not many years since an English Consul in Egypt was removed from his office by the British Government simply because he was too much disposed to see the provisions of British treaty and native law carried honestly into effect. But it is not alone in Turkey and Egypt that an interest in this cause has given way to apathy and indifference. Thirty years ago, Colonel Sheil faithfully represented the views of England at the Court of Persia, and was preparing the way both for the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in that country. But since his departure from Teheran, so far as is known, our representatives in that country have attempted nothing. Nobody desires to see the British Government enter upon a hostile or quarrelsome course; but as treaties are already in existence, and the enormous interests of a Continent are involved, can our present feeble, faltering, and questionable course on this subject in the East, be contemplated without a sense of humiliation and regret? To what cause must bz attributed this comparative indif- SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 1x7 ference of English Statesmen in modern times? There is no want on their part of professed interest in the subject, but, with one or two noble exceptions, our Statesmen seldom see that the right time to take any action is come. But it would not be just to lay all the blame at the doors of Governments. The people at large have been greatly at fault for want of information. Until within the last three years a common notion has prevailed that the slave-trade was a thing of the past. A great change in this respect has, however, now taken place and a knowledge of the real state of Africa has largely increased. When the people of this and the other great nations are properly alive to the subject, Statesmen will find that there is such a thing as a right time to act. Germany and Russia stand ready to unite their influenee with that of England. France will probably not be behind. As to America her national policy is now Anti-slavery. Her interest in the Eastern Nations is not small—her missions in those countries are numerous and singularly successful. The whole world needs Africa, it needs the produce of her vast and fertile lands. Her teeming millions, relieved from the slave-trade, and the wild and hopeless desolation which it spreads, will find their interest in cultivating the soil. Africa needs clothing and manufactured goods. Europe needs the raw material and produce of Africa, each Continent 118 THE LOST CONTINENT. might and ought to be a blessing to the other. Even the great famines in India might be prevented by the cultivation of Eastern Africa. The evident designs of a beneficent Providence are frus- trated by the present state of things. ‘But it is on still higher considerations that the state of Africa appeals at this moment to England and the civilized world. No man can comprehend the extent of the evil, or measure the amount of human suffering which slavery and all its consequences at this moment involve. Everything which has passed of late, and much that is still passing indicate that the time is come for the abolition of this, the greatest evil that ever afflicted mankind. The great work was half done long ago—many circum- stances combine to show that with the blessing of the Almighty it may be completed now. The time is surely come when this great barrier to the entrance and progress of Christianity may be thrown down to rise no more again for ever. So will the way be prepared for Africa to have her part in the fulfilment of the words of ancient prophecy—* Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting or destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise.” APPENDLY A DECLARATION des 8 Cours, relative 4 [abolition universelle de la Traite des Negres. (Congrés de Vienne, protocole du 8 Février, 1815.) Les Plénipotentiaires des Puissances qui ont signé le Traité de Pars du 30 Mai, 1814, réunis en Conférence,—ayant pris en considération : Que, le Commerce connu sous le nom de Traite des Negres o Afrique ‘a été envisagé, par les hommes justes et éclairés de tous les tems, comme répugnant aux principes d’humanité et de la morale universelle ; Que, les circonstances particulicres auxquelles ce Commerce a da sa naissance et la difficulté d’en enterrompre brusquement le cours ont pl couvrir, jusqu’a un certain point, ce qu'il y avoit d’odieux dans sa con- servation, mais qu’enfin la voix publique s'est élevée dans tous les pays «civilisés pour demander qu'il soit supprimé le plutdt possible ; Que, depuis que le caractere et les détails de ce Commerce ont été ‘mieux connus et les maux de toute espéce qui 'accompagnent compléte- ‘ment dévoilés, plusicurs des Gouvernemens Européens ont pris en effet la résolution de le faire cesser, et que successivement toutes les Puissances, possédant des Colonies dans les différentes parties du monde, ont reconnu, soit par des Actes Législatifs, soit par des Traités et autres Engagemens formels, obligation et la nécessité de I'abolir ; Que, par un Article Séparé du dernier Traité de Paris, la Grande Bretagne et la France se sont engagées a réunir leurs efforts au Congres de Vienne pour faire prononcer, par toutes les Puissances de la Chrétienté, abolition universelle et définitive de la Traite des Négres ; 120 THE 10ST CONTINENT. Que, les Plénipotentiaires rassemblés dans ce Congres ne sauroient mieux honorer leur Mission, remplir leur devoir et manifester les principes qui guident leurs Augustes Souverains, quen travaillant a réaliser cet engagement et en proclamant, au nom de leurs Souverains, le veeu de mettre un terme a un fléau qui a si long tems désolé I’Afrique, dégradé UEurope, et aflligé 'humanité ; — Les dits Plénipotentiaires sont convenus d’ouvrir leurs délibérations. sur les moyens d’accomplir un objet aussi salutaire, par une Déclaration solemnelle des principes qui les ont dirigé dans ce travail. En conséquence, et diiement autorisés a cet Acte par l’adhésion unanime de leurs Cours respectives au principe énoncé dans le dit Article Séparé du Traité de Paris, ils déclarent, a la face de I'Europe, que, regardant I'abolition universelle de la Traite des Négres comme une mesure particulicrement digne de leur attention, conforme a esprit du siecle et aux principes généreux de leurs Augustes Souverains, ils sont animés du désir sincere de concourir a 'exécution la plus prompte et la plus efficace de cette mesure, par tous les moyens a leur disposition et d’agir, dans l'emploi de ces moyens avec, tout le zcle et toute la persévérance qu’ils doivent a une aussi grande et belle cause. Trop instruits toutefois des sentimens de leurs Souverains, pour ne pas prévoir que, quelqu’honorable que soit leur but, ils ne le pour- suivront pas sans de justes ménagemens pour les intéréts, les habitudes et les préventions mémes de leurs Sujets; les dits Plénipotentiaires reconnoissent, en méme tems, que cette Déclaration générale ne sauroit préjuger le terme que chaque Puissance en particulier pourroit envisager comme le plus convenable pour I'abolition définitive du Commerce des Négres :—Par conséouent, la détermination de Pépoque oli ce Commerce doit universellement cesser sera un objet de négociation entre les Puissances ; bien erterdu que 'on ne négligera aucun moyen propre a en assurer et a en accélérer la marche; et que engagement réciproque, contracté par la présente Déclaration entre les Souverains qui y ont pris part, ne sera considéré comme rempli qu’au moment oll un succés complet aura couronné leurs efforts réunis. APPENDIX. : 121 En portant cette Déclaration a la connoissance de I'Europe, et de toutes les Nations civilisées de la terre, les dits Plénipotentiaires se flattent d’engager tous les autres Gouvernemens, et notamment ceux qui, en abolissant la Traite des Négres ont manifesté déja les memés sentimens, i les appuyer de leur suffrage dans une Cause dont le triomphe final scra un des plus beaux monumens du si¢cle qui Ua embrassée et qu laura gloricusement terminde. Vieng, le 8 Fevrier 1813. (CASTLEREAGH PaLmeLLa STewarp, Lieut.-Gen. SALDANHA WELLINGTON Logo NESSELRODE HumsoLpt C. LoweNHIELM METTERNICH Gomez Lasracor TALLEYRAND RESOLUTIONS relatives a I Abolition de la Traite des Négres, adoptées a la Conférence de Vérone, le 28 Novembre 1822. Les Plénipotentiaires de DIAutriche, de la France, de la Grande Bretagne, de la Prusse et de la Russie, réunis en Congres, a Verone, Considérant,—Que Leurs Augustes Souverains ont pris part a la Déclaration du 8 Février 1815, par laquelle, les Puissances réunies en Congres a Vienne, ont proclamé, a la face de Europe, leur Résolution invariable de faire cesser le Commerce connu sous le nom de la Traite des Negres d’Afrique ; Considérant de plus,—Que, malgré cette Déclaration et en dépit des Mesures Législatives dont elle a été suivie dans plusieurs Pays et des différens Traités conclus depuis la dite époque entre les Puissances Maratimes, ce Commerce, solemnellement proscrit, a continué jusqu’a ce jour, qu'il a gagné en intensité ce qu'il ‘peut avoir perdu en étendue, qu’il a pris méme un caractére plus odieux et plus funeste par la nature des movyens auxquels ceux qui Uexercent sont forcés d’avoir recours ; 3 122 THE 1LOST CONTINENT. Que les causes d'un abus aussi révoltant se trouvent principalment dans les pratiques frauduleuses, moyennant lesquelles les entrepreneurs de ces spéculations condamnables éludent les lois de leurs pays, déjouent la surveillance des bitimens employés pour arréter le cours de leurs iniquités, et couvrent les opérations criminelles dont les milliers d’étres humains deviennent d’année en année les innocentes victimes ; Que les Puissances de Europe sont appelées par leurs engagemens antérieurs, autant que par un devoir sacré, a chercher les moyens les plus efficaces pour prévenir un trafic, que déja les Lois de la presque totalité des Pays Civilises ont déclaré illicite et coupable, et pour punir rigourcusement ceux qui le poursuivent, en contravention manifeste de ices Lois; —Ont reconnu la néeessité de vouer I'attention la plus serieuse a un objet d’une aussi grande importance pour le bien et I’ hondeur ne Phumanité,—et déclarent, en conséquence,—au nom de Leurs Augustes Souverains : Qu’ils persistent invariablement dans les principes et les sentimens que ces Souverains ont manifesté par la Déclaration du 8 Février 1815; Qu’ils n'ont pas cessé, et ne cesseront jamais de regarder le Commerce des Négres comme ; “un fléau, qui a trop longtems désolé Afrique, dégradé I'Europe, et affligé I’humanité ” ; Qu'ils sont préts a concourir a tout ce qui pourra assurer et accélérer I’Abolition complete et définitive de ce Commerce ; Qu’afin de donner effet a cette Déclaration renouvelée, leurs Cabinets respectifs se livreront avec empressement a examen de toute Mesure compatible avec leurs droits et les intéréts de leurs Sujets, pour amener un résultat constatant, aux yeux du Monde, la sincérité de leurs veux et de leurs efforts en faveur d'une cause digne de leur sollicitude commune. APPENDIX. 123 APPENDIX BD. SIR SAMUEL BAKER’S EXPEDITION. (To the Editor of The Times.) Sir,—1I have seen in The Zimes of the 27th inst. a letter from Sir Samuel Baker, in which he says to those who are really interested in the slave-trade and its attendant horrors, there are important facts he can and will prove by numerous witnesses now in England. He charges Abou Sooad with stealing 1,400 head of cattle from the natives of the Shir tribe, and bringing them to Gondokoro ; also that he overtook three boats on the way to Khartoum, laden with 700 slaves belonging to Abou Sooad. Now, as I am one of the unfortunate survivors of his expedition, I presume I am one of the parties he refers to, and hasten to give my testimony in the matter. Previous to Sir Samuel Baker’s leaving Khartoum for Gondokoro he made arrangements with the firm of which Abou Sooad was agent for a supply of cattle, at so much per head, during his stay in the country. In agreement with this arrangement, Abou Sooad brought up a number of cattle to Gondokoro, which he took from the Shir tribe in the usual manner. These cattle Sir Samuel Baker took by force from Abou Sooad without paying for them. Sir Samuel must have been quite aware that Abou Sooad could only obtain them in the manner he did when he made the agreement with his firm in Khartoum. I am not aware that Sir S. Baker ever made any recompense to the Shir tribe for the loss of their cattle, although quite within his power to do so. It is quite true that we overtook three boats with a number of slaves on board, and I have no doubt that the boats belonged to Abou Sooad’s 124 THE LOST CONTINENT. firm. It was very fortunate for us we came up with the slave-dealers, as without their assistance we could not have got through the Sud in the Bahir Giraffe until the river rose. Delay in that dreadful region would have been attended with great disaster in the state of health we were all in. The slave-dealers gave their assistance with a hearty good- will; and Sir Samuel rewarded the head man of the slave-fleet with suitable presents, and parted with mutual good wishes. If Sir Samuel Baker wishes at any time for my testimony as to the barbarous manner in which the expedition was conducted, the whole- sale murders, pillage, and ruin of the country, he is welcome to it; or should the Royal Geographical Society or any body of gentlemen wish for any information respecting that futile expedition, I shall be glad to give it previous to my departure from this country. Sir Samuel Baker states that he gave Colonel Gordon assistance and advice as to the construction of his iron carts and other means of transport. He may have done so; but Colonel Gordon never acted upon it, they having been designed and ordered by me at Colonel Gordon’s request, I having been in his employ for some weeks previous to his departure for Egypt. J. M‘WiLLiaM, Chief Engineer late White Nile Expedition. 8, Balmoral Terrace, Aberdeen, July 28. APPENDIX. 125 APPENDIX THE LATE BISHOP PATTESON ON THE LABOUR TRAFFIC, GREAT stress is sometimes laid upon the fact that, though Bishop Patteson condemned the traffic as carried on his time, he did not advocate its total suppression. But it should be remembered that, whilst many outrages had been committed when the Bishop gave this opinion, the evils of the system were then only partially developed. Had he lived to witness the horrible atrocities that have since been perpetrated, and the total depopulation of some of the islands, or had he been better acquainted with the condition of large numbers of the victims under contract labour in Queensland and Fiji, the places of their destination, it can scarcely be imagined that so enlightened and excellent a man would have uttered a word in favour of it. To quote the Bishop, therefore, in support of the present system, appears scarcely just to his memory. 126 THE LOST CONTINENT. APPENDIX Db EXTRACTS OF A PAPER ON THE NORTH-WEST AFRICAN EXPEDITION. “THE object of the North-west African Expedition is to establish a commercial and missionary station at the mouth of the River Belta, on the Atlantic, in the neighbourhood of Cape Juby and Cape Bojador, on the North-west Coast of Africa, opposite the Canary Islands; to make a preliminary survey of the route between Cape Bojador, on the Atlantic Coast, and the Northern bend of the River Niger at Timbuctoo, in the interior, for the purpose of cutting a canal for commercial intercourse with Central Africa. “The great importance of a commercial highway into Interior Africa is patent to every mind; the revenue that would arise from such an enterprise would be immense, and the blessings to the natives would be equally great, shut up as they are at present from European intercourse. Such a highway would open up and develop the vast resources of that great continent to the civilised and commercial world. According to the authority of celebrated African travellers, the pro- jected canal is void of any formidable obstacle, and the physical formation of the great desert (Sahara) at this part favours the scheme, as the distance between the mouth of the River Belta and the Northern bend of the Niger at Timbuctoo is only about 740 miles, 630 of which is occupied by a great hollow called ¢ El Tiris and El Juf,” the existence of which is proved by Dr. Barth, Bou. el Moghdad Panet, &c., bordered by considerable tills, and is supposed to be about 140 feet APPENDIX. 127 below the level of the Atlantic, and has probably been at one time covered by the sea. This deeply-depressed country is separated from the sea by a broken ridge of about thirty miles, through which runs the River Belta, about twenty-five miles, so that all that is required is to deepen the channel and cut through the ridge, and let the Atlantic fall into this vast arid basin, which would form a fine sheet of water and improve the climate, as that of the Suez Desert has done, and would also become more fertile for pasturage and agriculture, and carry commerce at once into the heart of Africa. «A junction with the Niger is of the highest commercial importance ; it would not only command the whole trade of the populous cities and towns on the banks of the Niger, and the countries around teeming with population, but would command the trade of the great tributary rivers of the Niger as far as Lake Tchad, thus opening a direct com- mercial intercourse with about 20,000,000 inhabitants who have hitherto been almost excluded from trade, and would, moreover, become the commercial medium between North Central Africa and the populous regions of Tafilelt and Twat. «This country produces grain, cotton, ebony, indigo, iron, ivory, gold, &c.; the desert produces ostrich feathers, gum, palm oil, dates, &c.; coffee and rice could be cultivated to any extent. “The amount which may be required for an able and complete survey from Cape Juby, on the Atlantic Coast, to Timbuctoo, in the interior of Africa, will probably be about / 5,000; towards which sub- scriptions are earnestly solicited from those who are interested either in the extension of our commerce, or the civilisation and well-being of the African people. ¢ Donations will be thankfully received, on behalf of the ‘Trustees, by “ DonaLp MACKENZIE, “125, Sandringham Road, Dalston.” 128 THE LOST CONTINENT. «“ 4rmy and Navy Club, St. James's, «“ 30th January, 1875. ¢ Dear Sir,—I have read your communication with intense interest ; the subject is one that has engaged my attention for many years. You propose to work in the neighbourhood of Cape Juby; my idea was, that Cape Blanco would offer better facilities for the engineer. I am glad that a survey is to be undertaken to ascertain the practicability of sub- merging the Sahara from the Atlantic at some point which shall be beyond the jurisdiction of the Emperor of Morocco on the one hand, and northward of the French on the other. I shall be glad to aid you in a scheme second only to the Suez Canal. It is the only way to bring Christianity, commerce, and civilisation to the teeming millions at it centre. “ Yours faithfully, “ Joun H. Grover, “Commander R.N. «To Donald Mackenzie.” « An advantageous spot might be fixed upon the North-western Coast of Africa, in an independent district near the Empire of Morocco, where goods would have only to pass one tribe, and subject to no import whatever, neither would they be subject to any duty on entering the city of Timbuctoo, as they would enter at the Beb Sahara, or the gate of the desert, which exempts them from duty or import. Some persons have declared that the inhabitants of the Sahara are a wild and savage race, untractable and not to be civilised by commerce or any other n s, this I beg leave to contradict. I speak not from the experience of books, but from an actual intercourse, {rom having passed many years of my youth among them. “Vasco pe Gama.” APPENDIX. 129 APPENDIX I, THE KORAN ON SLAVERY. “ Si quelques-uns de vos esclaves en qui vous avez reconnu des bonnes qualités, vous demandent leur affranchissement par écrit donnez-le leur, et faites leur méme part de ces bien que Dien vous a dispenses.”— Sourate La Lumiere, xx. 33. “ Pour tous les vrais Musulmans, Bon-Hourira a prononce cette sentence : © Ne dites pas, mon esclave, car nous sommes tous les esclaves d’Allah, mais dites, mon serviteur ou ma servante.’ ” “Le Commentateur Musulman Achab a dit—¢ [enfant d’une esclave, frappé douloureusement par son maitre, peut le fuir.’” “D’apres les tradites, © Celui qui met en liberté un esclave est exempt des feux de Penfer”—L Esclavage chez les Musulmans. MM. Dunant, Geneve. That the Mohammedan religion sanctions slavery is not to be questioned, but it does not therefore follow that it offers any serious obstacle to its abolition. A religion which declares the manumission of slaves to be an act of the highest conceivable merit in this world, and one that even gives K I30 THE LOST CONTINENT. a title to happiness in the next, cannot be considered a stronghold of slavery. If it be true that Africa cannot be delivered from the slave-trade while slavery exists in the Eastern countries, it is not less true that the Mohammedan nations cannot be roused from their present state of lethargy and sensuality while slavery, in the form peculiar to the Moslems, continues to exist. No people have suffered more from the effects of slavery than the Mussulmans. They occupy some of the finest portions of the Earth, but under their rule those countries are in many parts little better than uncultivated wastes. All history shows that where slavery prevails every other evil follows in its train. That it should be so appears to be the retributive law of Providence, from which there is no escape. The abolition of slavery in Turkey and her dependencies is at the present moment an absolute and pressing necessity, if she is to continue to maintain an independent existence. London : BarreTT, Sons & Co., Crown Printing Works, Seething Lane, E.C. plan aE AR RE fe a © aad SE las SE 1A TRAVTIE ORIENTALL. Histoire des chasses a ’homme organisées en Afrique depuis quinze ans pour les Marchés de I’Orient. Par ETIENNE- FELIX BERLIOUX, Professor d’ Histoire, au Lycee Imperiale de Lyon. GUILLAUMIN, Paris, 1870. ANDRE BRIE. Ou I'Origine de la Colonie Francaise du Senegal. Par ETIENNE-FELIX BERLIOUX. GuiLLAUMIN, Paris, 1874. DOCTRINA PTOLEMAI Ab injuria recentiorum Vindicata sive Nilus superior et Niger verus, scripsit STEPHANUS-FELIX BERLIOUX. GUILLAUMIN, Paris. THE SLAVE-TRADE IN AFRICA IN 1872. Principally carried on for the supply of Turkey, Egypt, Persia and Zanzibar. By ETIENNE-FELIX BERLIOUX. From the French, with a Preface by JosEpH COOPER. London : 27, New Broad Street. \ | 14 DAY USE \ RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED | \ This book: & is due on the last date stamped below, Of a a the date to which renewed. Renewed I books are subject tO jmmediate e recall. NJ I ata : General Library 55] £ Catitoenie LD 21-40m- -2,'69 (36057510) 4T6—A 32 University 0 o C057990754 ER. ass TERT it Bp he ¢ RT Fim SALA MAL